Kekkai Onmyouji
by Artemis615
Summary: Saya is an Onmyouji, and is also a Kekkai user, the one and only person powerful enough to generate a Kekkai to beat Matobe Seiji. Now, Seiji meets Saya on the way to his meeting, and finds her utterly fascinating. He meets her again, and there, she unleashes her Kekkai powers and helped him to vanquish his enemy, the one that is after his eye. MatobaxOC
1. Hands

**Chapter 1 - Hands**

In one of the many rooms in the Shiratoe's Residence, there sat a girl by a large open window, one of her leg dangles out of the window's ledge while she watches the beautiful garden lay just outside of this very room. It was her personal chamber, and it has three parts in it. One acts as an open lounge that others will come in and see her, the other one act as her private sleeping chambers and study room that no one but her could enter.

"Ojou-sama," one of her trusted maid called her. "There is a meeting of sorcerer's tomorrow evening. Who would you send as your replacement for this meeting this time?"

Saya smiles to herself. She has been the head of this family for more than 3 years now. Being the sole child who could use her family's secret arts to the fullest, she is chosen to be the Head of Shiratoe by her deceased parents. Of course, nobody else knows about the head being a young girl like her. Shiratoes kept things to themselves, and they do not value outsider's observations with their family.

"The world is a cruel place, Wakame," Saya said softly, her gaze fixated upon the koi fish pond that no others but her could see. She noted to herself that it was a head of the family thing. "The world consisting of the people with extraordinary senses would not accept well to a female becoming the head of an esteemed exorcist family. They would certainly not accept me well either – such biasness – They would certainly not accept a 16 year old girl like me to be the head of the esteemed Shiratoe Family of Exorcisms."

Shiratoe Saya is a 16 year old 2nd year student. The Shiratoes resides deep in the woods in a large family shrine, and rarely comes out from where they live. Saya has three siblings; Haru, her apparently powerless elder brother and her young twin brothers, Yoite and Miharu. Being the only girl in the family left that has some impressive degree of power; Saya is the sole choice that the family has in keeping the dwindling line going.

"But Ojou-sama," Wakame started again. "This meeting is as important as any other meetings. You yourself must attend it or send some replacement. Surely you cannot think that you could keep the truth about the Head of the Shiratoe House is now a young high-school girl for long? The hidden truth would not bode well to be kept for so long."

"I know," Saya said, fingering the invitation letter in her fingers. Flinging onto a nearby table stand, Saya stood up and motioned for Wakame to follow her out of the chamber. "That's why I've decided to attend the meeting myself this time. Let them think of it as a surprise."

"Haru-sama would not approve of you going alone, Ojou-sama," Wakame reminded her, helping her stripping off her clothes as she stepped into the large hot bath built into the ground with fresh spring hot water coming directly from the mountains. "It would no doubt be dangerous."

Saya laughed, splashing hot water onto her face and sunk deeper into the center of the bath. "I know. So don't tell anyone where I'm going. I won't promise that I won't get hurt, but I won't die – that I am certain."

…..

"Stupid meeting," Saya muttered angrily while she trudged on and on, following the hidden path towards the meeting's place. "Why on earth do they have to do it in such a faraway place?"

Saya had decided to attend to meeting all by herself. She had even sneaked out of home and ran all the way in hopes that Haru, her elder brother, does not caught her in the act of going solo on such a dangerous meeting.

Haru is just like any other over-protective brother. On behalf of their dead parents, he felt a sense of responsibility over his young siblings and took care of them just like the big brother he is. His only regrets are that he tends to blame himself on his incompetency in the secret arts of his family. He is born without any single ounce of powers of their secret arts, and is basically worthless in the family. Although many view him as an eyesore, he has a brilliant mind and tends to make exquisite balms and medicine from their family apothecary work. Saya loves her brother, and Haru, of course, dotes on his only sister in the family. Saya smiles at the kind thoughts of her brother. _Such a gentle brother_, Saya thought to herself. _I'm so lucky to have him as my big brother._

The forest is beautiful in its very own natural way. The air is fresh and crisp at this time of the month and season, and the weather today is wonderful. Raising her hands high in the air, Saya arched her back a little and stretched herself, taking in lungs full of crisp fresh air and breath out frozen white breath. Her kimono – an aqua-colored, bellflower design topped with silvery white and black accentuated her fair visage, causing her fair natural flush and plump cherry red lips looked ever so tempting and seductive without her making an effort. Her long impressive ebony black hair is left hidden in a braided elegant chignon, resulting in a rather large bun resting at the nape of her neck delicately, exposing only the faintest hint of fair white skin underneath it.

"Welcome, lady. Welcome, sir," a little youkai bearing a red umbrella called out of the blue. Surprised, Saya lets out a loud squeak of surprise and turns around quickly to find the source of the voice. Her legs clumsily gets tangled with her kimono and were about to send her tumbling down the narrow path's cliff when a pair of hands shot out of nowhere and grabbed a hold of her around the waist.

"You're a rather clumsy one, aren't you?" a deep cool voice said from behind her neck, practically breathing the words behind her neck. The close proximity of their distance unwittingly sends a shiver down her back. It appears that the man felt her shiver as well and chuckled. Saya felt the vibration of his laughing down behind her back.

Not liking the feeling that she is being laughed at by an unknown stranger, Saya roughly struggles against his grip. "Let me go you insolent brute!"

When the man releases her, she turns around quickly and meets her apparent savior.

It is a very tall man. Being only 5 foot 2 herself, she noted to herself that this man is insanely tall. He had a strange talisman as an eye patch over his right eye. He wears his hair in a simple fashion; a longish fringe that covers the eye patch area whiles the rest of his long dark hair is tied in a low ponytail. Picking up the umbrella he had discarded in an attempt to save her, Saya takes notes of the pattern on the umbrella and almost gasp out aloud at the realization.

That talisman eye patch and the design of the umbrella is the significant trait that is worn by only one person.

Smiling down at her, Saya realizes who that person is – It was Matoba Seiji.

"The entrance is this way," the little umbrella bearing youkai said almost timidly. Turning around, the little youkai begun to bounce his way towards the more hidden paths of the forest, leaving the two of them behind to catch up.

Matoba turned his gaze from the little youkai back to the girl he just saved from sliding down the cliff sides. Seiji thought to himself silently that she is a rather beautiful girl, albeit a little too young for her age to attend the meeting.

_Must be some significant figure's daughter then,_ Seiji thought to himself with a small smile grazed on his handsome features.

"I don't think that an insolent brute would want to save you now, wouldn't they, little lady?" Seiji said with a wide grin on his face, grinning even more when Saya fumes up at his comment.

"Thanks for the quick save," the girl snapped almost angrily. "I'll be extra careful so that such incident would not happen again!" Almost childishly, Saya stomped towards the direction where the little youkai had went, bearing in mind to keep a good distance away from Matoba Seiji.

Throughout the whole journey, both of them are silent. Seeing as they had to share a guide with their coincidental arrival together, Saya tolerated the grinning Matoba who kept staring and observing her reactions, patting her chest in an attempt to sooth her burning heart.

"My name is Matoba Seiji," Seiji introduced himself to her out of the blue, graciously holding the umbrella atop of her head without her realizing them. "What is your name?"

Saya glared at Matoba from the sideways of her eyes, not wanting to look at him fully in the face. Breathing out angrily, Saya crosses her arms childishly and looked away from him.

"Saya," she answered simply, not willing to give up her family name just yet.

"Saya?" Seiji raised an eyebrow at the sound of her name – chuckling disbelievingly at it, even. It was so simple – Little Night – and for a while, he thought it sounded rather cute on her. "Saya?" he repeated it again out of sheer surprise. "I never thought that someone would name their daughter with something as simple as 'Saya' after the world modernized…"

A vein popped over Saya's temple. "I know my name's simple, all right!? At least my name's not old fashioned like yours!"

Seiji laughed at the antics this little lady is exhibiting. It's so refreshing to have someone acting so freely around him. Like Saya, he had decided to go to the meeting alone, and if his underlings wish to attend with him, they would have to go after he has arrived.

"You are a very interesting girl, Saya," Seiji said sincerely with a smile on his face, watching the little lady turned around abruptly with wide innocent eyes staring at him, seemingly at shock with what he had just said. "It suits you."

"E-eh?" she stuttered, never hearing something so unexpected, more so when it actually comes from the very mouths of Matoba Seiji, the infamous Head of the Matoba clan.

He is an infamously cold man, and he is known to be extremely sneaky and cruel. His willingness to sacrifice anything blocking his path in securing the safety of the greater good has also marked him as someone that no one would want to come near to, let alone interacting with him. Saya had silently told herself to stop talking to him, and had hoped that he, too, will pick up on her giving him the obvious cold shoulders and leave her alone. She hadn't thought about him praising her…

Seiji smiles again. Reaching out with his hand, Seiji places a hand atop of her head and leans in much closer to her face, "I said 'it suits you' very well' – your name."

"Don't get so close to me whenever you like, Matoba-san," Saya said bitingly and used a finger to poke at his shoulder, her glaring gaze directed towards Seiji's rather reddish eyes – yet another special trait of the Matoba clan. "Refrain from invading my bubble of privacy next time, or you'll find someone breathing down your neck in the future."

Seiji laughed out loud, enjoying her reaction far too much than what he had expected from her. She is not just interesting, she is fascinating!

"Bubble of privacy?! I have never heard something as absurd as that! Hahaha! Where did you learn that?"

"At school, mind you!" Saya snapped without mercy, finding her getting angrier the more she watches him laugh. She didn't find any of the things she'd said funny – hell, it wasn't even funny to begin with! So why is he laughing at her!?

"You learn that in school!?" Seiji said with a chuckle. "I thought schools are supposed to teach you theories and stuff you could use in life, like how to boil water and read ABC."

"It's more than just boil water and read ABC, Mr. Exorcist!" Saya said in a snapping tone, frowning openly at him. She had never lost her temper to anyone other than her family and servants, and yet this man – Matoba Seiji of the Matoba clan – is capable of making her blood boil in promises of poisons and curses with just their first meeting alone. "Schools are the perfect place to socialize with other people aside from learning languages and skills and theories. We don't go to school just to learn how to handle the kitchen."

"Hmm…" Seiji hummed in a contemplating tone, his head cocked sideways while he looked at her with a small smile grazing his lips. "I suppose going to school is a fun thing then?"

Glaring at him sideways, Saya twitched her lips and showed him her teeth as a sign for him to not step onto her tail any longer. Looking away from him, Saya said haughtily. "Of course it is, dumbo! You speak of it as if you've never been to school."

"I've never been to school," Seiji said in a nonchalant tone, his eyes observing the wide blue sky above him. "With my status of power in the family, I can only receive the best tutors they've hired to teach me. You could say that I'm homeschooled. My life is planned, and I've chosen to carry them out without fail. School – to them – is out of bound."

After hearing what Seiji had said about his life, Saya is stunned into a momentary silence. She has never met someone who is not allowed the luxury of going to school. She could only thought about how lonely he must have felt – constantly surrounded with mindless shikis and underlings that do nothing but bound him to the very clan that aspires to wipe out all youkais. Sadness crept into her heart, and she reached out for him without another thought.

Seiji is surprised with the small hand that came creeping surely and softly into his. He looked down and realizes that Saya is lacing her fingers with his, and he is silently amazed at how warm and good it felt her hand is in his. Her hand is small and soft, warming his cold digits in hers. His eyes travelled back up at her, and he found himself reflected in her unwavering large dark cherry-red eyes, looking almost brown when they're shaded with her fringes.

"This is what I do when I go to school with my cousin – she and I shares the belief that if you go to school happily together, you'll be less likely to feel lonely and more likely to feel extra motivated with what you do. You'll achieve what you strive to do when you're hand-in-hand."

This time, it was Seiji who is stunned into silence. As he stares into her eyes, he finds that there are actually flecks of gold in them, and that one of her eyes are much less darker than the other. The shine in her eyes tells much more about her – she is someone who appreciates life, and is passionate in doing whatever she does. His gaze fell to her lips, and he finds himself fighting the temptation to lean in and give her a kiss, but that would have frightened her away from him. He liked her hand in his, and he slowly finds himself smiling at her softly.

Reaching down, Seiji ran the back of his fingers down her temple and her cheek, smoothing away stray fringes that block her face from his view. "Has anyone ever told you just how adorable you are?" he said almost unconsciously, marveling at the smooth fair skin he felt through the back of his fingers.

Saya smiles weakly, wanting so much to succumb to the nice feeling she felt when he is running the back of his fingers up and down her cheek. She refrains from doing so, especially when he watches her so closely. "You're the first one, Matoba-san."


	2. Monster

**Chapter 2 – Monster**

Matoba Seiji went out to catch a little crow that has run away. The crow spirit has a few underlings, and he easily exorcised them all. With his powers as the Head of the Matoba clan, it is an easy thing to vanquish everything that blocks his path.

Including innocent youkais.

It was when he was busy chocking a young yokai that have suddenly barged into the shrine, a young girl slipped into the shrine and found herself frozen to the ground with all the blood and half-dead yokais. Up ahead, shrouded in the dark, her dark cherry-red eyes picked up on a yokai choking a pale young human.

In a matter of moments, another winged yokai crept up and seized the young human after he had injured the yokai that chocked him, flying out of the shrine speedily and into the sky. She made the mistake of staring at the gradually retreating figure before she realizes that she is slammed unceremoniously into the wall behind her back, a pair of strong hands chocking her in the same way that it had chocked the young human.

Although her friend back at her manor has always been a liar, Saya had never truly believed her friend's words about curiosity killing the cat.

Up until now.

Summer festival is coming soon, and she wanted to enjoy the festival as much as she can as it only came once in a year. The foods, not to mention, were superb despite just being a simple roadside stall. She had sneaked out each year out of the manor's preparation and came here to stuff herself silly with all that is to offer with such a festival.

She would then bought some home for her brother, Haru, and her little twin brothers, Yoite and Miharu. They love snacks from the roadsides, and would stuff themselves silly until the servants came up to them and scold them. It was until she sensed something evil in the air did she stopped searching for takoyaki.

Following the strange scent in the air, she found herself staring at tracks of yokai blood and a forgotten parasol by the stairs towards a shrine, its door wide open. She forgoes the parasol by the door and went in, and if she had taken the time to see the parasol's markings, she would have known who it is inside there in the shrine. Feeling unease, Saya crept up towards the shrine and slipped in, surprising her with the scene of a yokai choking a pale young man. Then it was her turn.

The yokai currently chocking her wears its hair in a simple fashion; a longish fringe that covers the yokai wraps around its eyes and long dark hair tied in a low ponytail. He even wore an expensive dark yukata, as expected of yokais. She realizes that he's trying to cut off her oxygen and to truly kill her in a merciless way. Not willing to die in such a place and in such a young age, she forces herself to look into the youkai's dark red eyes and struggles against its vice-like grip. In a daze from shock, the girl gripped the proprietor's arm hard and aimed for its face, ripping off its yokai wraps and revealing a long line of silvery white scar slashed straight from the eyelid to its cheek, its red eyes stared at her in horror after realizing what she had done.

The youkai screamed.

She realizes what it truly is when it slowly raised its hand to its eyes, a distraught and disbelieving look in its eyes and expression.

"You're…" she croaked, one hand around her neck while the other examined what would have been a seal-hiding paper under sunlight. Coughing and taking big greedy gulps of air, "You're a human…!"

"Y-you!" the man – now that he realized that she's a human – spluttered and suddenly paled considerably, eyes large and stared fearfully at the figure behind her, which she presumed was large with the amount of shadow it casted.

A sudden cold chill ran down her spine, indicating an evil yokai several times larger than her petite small built. No one in the Shiratoe family is bulky and big sized, and at the same time, despite the small built, no one in the Shiratoe clan is useless and not equipped with power.

Turning around slowly, she finds herself facing a large yokai 5 times her own petite size. It looked ancient, and it smells of old soils and rust, like the scent of blood.

"I… Found… You!" the monster said, and Matoba Seiji shivers in fear.

Legend for told of the Matoba clan. The head of the clan had made a contract with a yokai, and have offered up his eye to help him vanquish a rather powerful yokai. The monster vanquished the yokai, but the Matoba clan did not uphold their promise of giving up their eye. And so, the head of each Matoba clan is hunted by the monster day and night, and in order for them to not have their eye gouged out by the monster, they would have to wear a seal that covers and hides their eye from the monster.

The smell gradually thickened and soon she felt herself chocking on the fumes that started to surround them. Swallowing bile down her throat and fighting the urge to vomit then and there, Saya takes a deep breath and tried not to gag at the heavy blood scent in the air.

"Nenshi," the girl said quietly and as calmly as she could, summoning her strength and prayed that her voice did not crack from the amount of cold the creature is casting down her back. A string of energy thread came out of her palm and wrapped around the large angry spirit, now riling up to attack the man behind her. It let out a loud angry roar upon realizing that the energy threat is actually strong enough to render it immobilized and unable to move an inch.

"Ma-to-ba!" the angry yokai roared at the man behind her. "Ma-To-Ba!"

"Matoba?!" Saya exclaimed in a whisper, snapping her head behind and stare at the young man standing behind her, one hand covering his lost seal eye patch. Her eyes widened in surprise at the recollection of that particular clan name. _He's one of the Matoba's?! _"You're from the Exorcist House of Matoba?! Matoba Seiji!"

"Apparantly so…" Seiji gritted his teeth in annoyance and glared at the young girl. From the little sunlight that poured in from the open door, he could see that she is a young thing, younger than him for sure. He had seen her before…

She is Saya… the girl that held his hands to the meeting of the exorcists last time…

He'd seen that technique of energy thread before, and it was a particularly powerful technique displayed by the old head of the kekkaishi clan, Shiratoe Shibata of the House of Shiratoe. They are the one clan that is known to vanquish ayakashis and yokai with kekkai barriers, which are rumored to be nearly indestructible. He didn't like that clan very much. They're not weak, and that means they're the one clan that he couldn't control with his newfound power as the Head of Matoba clan since he was 15.

And he didn't like that at all…

"Ketsu (Bind)," the girl said with two fingers held up in front of her mouth, creating a small barrier around the yokai's head. The large yokai's voice is instantly drained out by the barrier generated, creating a silence over the shrine.

"Would you like me to finish your clan's mortal enemy?" Saya said suddenly in a strange cheery tone, smiling sweetly at Seiji with a slight blush on both of her pale cheeks. She felt rather excited after encountering such a large yokai and at the same time able to stop it from moving at all. She wanted to finish it in one command of her family's technique of the Kekkai Jutsu, but seeing as the yokai had personally came after the young man standing just inches from her, she thought that maybe perhaps he would want to do something about it in his way.

And once again, a vein twitched on Seiji's forehead.

"How did you know that youkai's my mortal enemy?" Seiji said suspiciously, his red eyes narrowing to a dangerous slit. "That is a story only the Matoba's know…"

"Oh, yeah right. Everybody knows the Matoba legend with the monster from the mountains. Your ancestor made a contract with them, and in return for the head's left eye, the monster is to vanquish another yokai. And after he had done it, the Matoba disappears. And so, the monster has been searching for the Matoba head's eye ever since. That's why you had to wear your eye patch there, Matoba-san…" Saya said to him with a smile, and with that, Matoba came out with his bow and arrow.

"Ye who rest in the Earth and hold the keys, come to me. Ye is the one who disturbs the stones. Take away the inhuman one!" Seiji chanted, and shoots an arrow with a charm paper at the monster.

The monster immediately disintegrated into puffs of dust and smokes, and nothing is left behind. He felt a burden lifted from his chest and shoulders, and he had vanquished the monster that his family had tried so desperately hard to hide from.

"You're a Shiratoe," Seiji said in monotone, his eyes an indifferent mask of emotion. He knew she's from the House of Shiratoe from her Kekkai technique. However so, he is genuinely surprised when he found out that she is a Shiratoe.

Under the sunlight, he could see that she is a beautiful young lady. Her long hair trailed behind her in a high ponytail, its dark brown tresses trailing behind her back and formed a ripple of shiny brown river locks when she moved, with traces of red in her hair when the light hits the right spot. Turning around, the girl gave Seiji an apologetic look and smiled at him.

She looks so different compared to when he had seen her during the meeting with the Exorcist. She kept quiet during the meeting, and he suspected that she is someone operating for someone powerful. He had no idea that she is one of the Shiratoes, and he had absolutely no idea that she could have this degree of power.

A Shiratoe's kekkai power is mostly reserved for the females in the family, and after marrying, their powers will increase almost ten folds their original strength compared to when they were unmarried, possibly because of their virtues. A virgin Shiratoe female user is usually less powerful than someone who has their virginity taken by a man. The males is the all powerful kekkai users, and usually only one male in the family in one generation is able to use kekkai jutsu fully. The females are capable of building simple kekkai but are unable to form or perform any other techniques of the House of Shiratoe's Kekkai Jutsu. He firmly believes in that, until he met that girl.

Saya is obviously unmarried, obviously single and blatantly young. She barely looked like she's out of high school, and yet here she was, displaying outrageously powerful techniques of jutsus that only the head of the clan is able to.

In other words…

She is an abomination in the clan.

"Yeah," Saya said apologetically. "I am Shiratoe Saya. I am the Head of the Shiratoe clan. Please to meet you, Matoba Seiji-sama."


	3. Home

**Chapter 3 – Home**

"Onii-sama!" Saya calls through her house, and out came a young man with long hair tied with a small red string. He is good looking.

Extremely good looking.

He had dark brown eyes that looks warm and cool, and at the same time, he has a pair of soft smiling lips that had the corner of the lips upturned to form a constant soft smile. His bangs are long and put on a side, and they are parted in the middle. His long hair reaches the small of his back, and the red string that binds his hair together had a small jade with some carvings on it.

He wore a simple dark blue yukata, and he constantly had his hands clasped together in the front. He looks gentle and kind, and smiles when he saw his sister.

"Saya…" Haru said to her, opening her arms to let her have a hug. She tumbles into his arms and he swings her around. "Hahaha! You're back!"

"Yes! And I've brought some snacks for us and a friend as well!" Saya said to him as he settles her to the ground, and she gave him the small plastic bag with food from the festival stalls.

"A friend?" Haru said curiously. He looked behind him and saw a young man with an eye patch on one side of his face.

It was Matoba Seiji.

"Matoba Seiji?" Haru exclaims, surprise on his face.

"Onii-sama, he's fine. He's a friend. He saved my life before…" Saya said to him, and Haru calmed down.

"You said he saved your life before? When was it?" Haru asked her, and she darted her eyes all over the place.

"My little sister is not telling me something~" Haru said in a singsong tone, and smiles at her, pinching her face.

"Onii-sama!" Saya exclaims, and Haru laughs out loud.

"Alright. I shall ask you in another time. Come on in, Seiji-kun. Let's have some of the snacks that Saya brought back for us," Haru said to Seiji, and he trudged awkwardly behind Saya.

"Come on!" Saya said to him, and pulls on his arms. Seiji was lurched forward with Saya pulling him along, and he went along with her to enter the dwellings of the Shiratoe.

The Shiratoe house is impressively luxurious. It's huge land and house stands alone in a single land, and there is a magnificent garden nearby as well. The pond is full of carps and koi fishes swimming in there, and they looked absolutely beautiful and mystifying.

The house, on the other hand, is made entirely out of the most expensive wood. Its dark timbre told the ages of the house, and the house looks completely regal and old and ancient. Such houses were the houses of an Exorcist.

An Omnyouji.

Shiratoe is an Exorcist, and at the same time, they are also Onmyouji. They vanquish the devils and the evil spirits, and do not use them to do their biddings. They have their Kekkais, and that proves to be their absolute power. It is something that Seiji wishes to have, but to no avail.

His house, Matoba, is only famous for their Exorcist skills. They do not possess any real Kekkai, and absolutely do not possess any powers at all apart from their skills. They rely on their skills to live, and in time, they used lesser yokais and powerful yokais to do their biddings, killing them when the deed is done to hide what they had done. They are evil, and Matoba Seiji knew that.

But what could he do? He is the Head. He has used this technique for a long time since his ascend to the Head of the House. He has done it for a long time, and he will do so again when the time comes again.

"Onee-sama!" two little identical twins ran to hug Saya. Saya squatted down and lets them hug her side by side.

"Yoite! Miharu!" Saya calls them, and introduces them to Seiji.

"These are my little twin brothers. Yoite and Miharu. Say hello to Onii-sama…"

"Seiji Onii-sama!" Yoite and Miharu said to him with a low bow of respect, and Seiji is surprised.

He had never had the chance to encounter with little children before. To see them before his eyes were like something he had never done before in his entire life.

"Adorable, aren't they?" Saya said to Seiji, and patted the heads of her brothers. Her brothers giggles adorably and smiles widely at Seiji. Seiji manages a small smile at them, and was pulled suddenly by the both of them.

"Come, come, Seiji-Onii Sama! We have something to eat!" both of them said in unison, and they giggles as they pull Seiji to the kitchen to have their food.

The kitchen is a place for them to have their time and eat. It was quite small than what he had imagined, but nonetheless the size is fine. It is warm and it smells wonderful. There are fresh bread baked and placed on the countertop, and fruits overflowing from one of the fruit bowls. There is a small round jade table by the side of the kitchen, and they sat down on it and begun to unwrap the food that Saya had brought for them.

"Come and sit down with me, Seiji-sama," Saya calls to him, and he grudgingly came to sit down beside her.

"Here, try some of these. It's nice!" Saya scooped some of the curry balls to him and he picked up his chopstick slowly. He had never eaten roadside food before. It is considered dirty and all, but the smell that came from it smells so nice he couldn't hold his desires back.

And he picked one curry ball and put it in his mouth. He savors the taste of the curry ball, soft and warm and hot at the same time. It is something that he has never eaten before, and it tasted good.

"How was it?" Saya asks him, and he smiles at her softly.

"It's good…" Seiji replies her, and she smiles at him widely.

"Wait till you get her dinner," Haru said to him, putting a curry ball into his mouth and bites onto it. "She is a good cook. She cooks for us, actually. And we couldn't get enough of her food!"

"Yeah! Stay for dinner, Seiji-sama!" Saya said to him, and he gave her a strange look.

"Just Seiji would be enough. Don't call me by my honorary title," Seiji said to her, and she smiles wider.

"Then, Seiji-kun!" Saya said to him, and Seiji smiles at her.

"Seiji-kun! Seiji-kun!" Yoite and Miharu calls in unison, and everyone laughs at them.

Dinner came soon enough. While Saya is in the kitchen cooking, Haru brought Seiji to walk around the garden. The garden is something that he has never seen before. There are so many fruit trees and flowers and trees that he is in awe with it.

"Beautiful isn't it?" Haru said to him, and Seiji nods his head.

"My mother planted them. She loves the garden, and would often come out to plant something every day. She left this garden for me to take care of, since I am basically powerless compared to my dear sister, Saya. Look! The peach is ripe. You can try it if you want to…" Haru said to Seiji, and picked the peach for him.

Haru gave it to Seiji, and he smiles as a sign of gratitude. He bites into them softly, and finds that it tasted like nothing he has ever tasted before.

"The peach tree and the rest of the fruit trees here drinks from the mountain water. It tastes like nothing you have ever tasted before because of it as well. You can bring some home with you later on. We have plenty of them all year round," Haru said to him, and smiles kindly at the young man.

"Why are you powerless, if I may dare to ask, Haru-sama?" Seiji ask him, and Haru quiets down.

"I am born without powers. It seems that the Kekkai jutsu skipped me, and fells on my sister. It is a burden. I've seen her struggle to reach what she has today, and it is not an easy task to hold, young man. She has taken up my burden, and with it, she became the Head of the House instead of me. It is a burden rather than a gift, she had said so herself, and I agree with her. A burden worth a lifetime of sufferings, if I may say…" Haru said to him with a forlorn expression on his face, and looks up to the skies.

"I am sorry…" Seiji said to him, and felt guilty for bringing up such a stinging subject to Haru.

"Don't be," Haru said to him with a smile. "I am better off without the powers, and without the title of the Head to bother me, I can concentrate on what I am doing. I brew medicine and other things at the apothecary, and kept them stored at the storage until we need them. I am an apothecarian, you see, for the House of Shiratoe. I am good with medicine, so I stay with it until now…"

"Onii-sama! Seiji-kun! Dinner is ready!" Saya called from the kitchen.

"Hai!" Haru calls back, and nudged his head towards the direction of the kitchen at Seiji.

"Come, dinner is ready!" Haru said to him, and smiles widely at the young man.

The moment Seiji stepped into the kitchen; he is greeted with the pungent smell of food. At the table, food is almost overflowing. There are soup and plenty of side dishes, as well as desserts.

"The dessert would be ice blended sweet potato soup!" Saya exclaims, and her little twin brothers jumps up happily at the sound of dessert.

"Yay! Yay! Dessert! Desserts!" Yoite and Miharu calls excitedly, and giggles and sit down on their chairs.

"Itadakimasu!" everyone said their prayers, and they dig in with the food.

Seiji is awkward still around Saya's family, and did not pick any food from the dishes or the plates in front of him. Saya, upon seeing this, picked some food from the dishes and places it in his bowl.

"Come, eat," Saya said to him with a gentle smile. "You need food for energy. Eat some more, don't be shy…"

"Come, Seiji-kun!" Haru said to him, and picked some omelet pieces and places it in his bowl. Yoite and Miharu too picked something off the dishes and place it in his bowl.

"Seiji Onii-sama! Eat!" Yoite said to Seiji and Seiji smiles.

It was such a nice place to be in. Everyone is so nice to him, and he felt so at home that for once, he felt warmth in his heart. He smiles at them, and ate his food heartily. He felt tears at the corner of his eyes, and he quickly blinked them away.

The Shiratoe are nice to him. They are so nice to him despite him being a Matoba Head. He couldn't possibly imagine himself being nice to the Shiratoe if he did not meet Saya on first hand. He would have treated them with scorn.

But here, in the Shiratoe house, everything is overflowing with warmth. He felt so at peace and at home with them surrounding him. Saya is smiling at him, and so does Haru and Yoite and Miharu, the three brothers. Everyone is smiling at him widely and sincerely, and picked more food for his bowl of rice.

The dessert came. It tasted so delicious and refreshing that Seiji asked for a second bowl awkwardly. Saya smiles widely at him and quickly scooped another bowl for him.

"Eat slowly, ne?" she said to him kindly, and Seiji smiles at her softly.

"Thank you," Seiji said to her. "For the food…"

"You're welcome to come here anytime you want… alright? Don't be shy!" Haru said to him, inviting him over to their house.

"No…" Seiji rejected the idea. "I couldn't possibly-"

"No. You can come over anytime you want. I'll cook something for you alright? You look so malnourished…" Saya said to him, grabbing a hold of his wrist and examining it.

Haru, too, grabbed his other hand and examined his wrists.

"Yeah. He's so skinny…" Haru said to himself. "So skinny… didn't they feed you well at your place?"

Seiji blushes shyly. It is an impossible feat, but he did blush at the sound of the question.

"They did, but I rebelled against them and… well… threw the food away…" Seiji said to them awkwardly, and everyone is quiet.

"Was the food not… good?" Saya asks him slowly, afraid of taunting him in a way.

Seiji shakes his head. "It's good, but I hated everyone at my place. They're so nosy…"

"I see…" Haru said to him, letting go of his hand. Saya lets go of his hands as well, and resumes eating her dessert.

"Do you wanna bring some back home with you?" Saya ask him brightly, changing the dark atmosphere to a happy one.

"I couldn't possibly-" Seiji started, but was brushed off by Haru's hands.

"Nonsense! You shall bring home some of the food with you. Eat it when you're back home, alright? Or you can keep it for tomorrow. Keep it in the fridge. It'll be better…" Haru said to him, and smiles kindly at him.

"Thank you so much… for the food…" Seiji said to them with a slight bow, and they all smiled at him.


	4. Again

**Chapter 4 – Again**

There is another letter of invitation came in to the House of Shiratoe and the House of Matoba clan.

"Ojou-sama," Wakame said to Saya, who is lounging at the nearby window ledge with cushions piled up beside her. The servant handed her a golden letter, and Saya opens it and reads the content.

"Hmm…" she sighed. "There is another meeting coming up. I'm gonna go…"

"You're going to the meeting, Saya?" Haru said, coming into Saya's room quietly. Saya balked at the sight of her brother.

"Onii-sama!" Saya called, and hides the letter.

"Don't fret," Haru said to her. "I've already known you're the type to sneak out from home and go to the meeting on behalf of me. You can't hide the fact that you are the rightful head of the family from everyone forever and ask me to be your stand in, Saya…"

"I know, Onii-sama…" Saya said sadly. "But they won't believe I am the head. I mean, look at me! I'm so young!"

"And full of power and passion, my darling," Haru said to her, sitting by the window ledge by her side and held her hand. "Saya, dear, you are powerful. You are the legend, and you shall rise and be the head of the family regardless you want it or not. Your Onii-sama does not have your power, not even an ounce of it. Be a good girl, and be safe… we shall all be waiting for you to come back home with Seiji-kun, alright?"

"Why Seiji-kun!" Saya exclaims, blushing from the roots of her hair and to her ears. Her blush escalated to the degree that it has spread to her neckline, and she looks like a red tomato.

Haru laughed.

"Well, I can see that you like that boy very much, Saya. Why not bring him around and confess to him?"

"No!" Saya said to him defiantly. "I want him to do the honor first… where else would you find a girl who would willingly confess to a guy she likes?"

"Well, high school girls!" Haru said to her with a wide smile. Saya made a face at him and Haru laughs. "They used to do that confession thing with a love letter and some chocolate for the boys they like!"

"Those only happen in shoujo manga, Onii-sama!" Saya barked, and ran out from her room. Haru laughs at her and stood up to go back to his apothecary.

That day, Saya is dressed to fit her status by her servants. Haru had given explicit instruction for the servants to dress her beautifully as the Ojou-sama of the Shiratoe clan.

Despite the many displays of kimonos, Haru had ordered the servants to dress her in the original flowing Chinese ancient gowns that Onmyoujis used to wear. It is white in color, and her hair is decorated with chrysanthemum flowers and golden chrysanthemum hair pins, the emblem of the Shiratoe clan. Her feet are delicately put on with embroidered silk shoes, lily patterns to be exact, and it is one of the purest symbols that their house uses.

"Onii-sama," Saya calls her brother after she came out from her room.

"Now, you look like an Onmyouji," Haru said to his sister, smiling widely at her and took her hand, guiding her to the carriage that would take her to the meeting.

"Why a carriage, Onii-sama?" she asks him innocently, cocking her head to the sides. The golden chrysanthemum with the trailing golden ornament follows her movement, and twinkles brightly in the sun.

"We wouldn't want to let them know that our Ojou-sama is walking to the meeting on her own two feet now, wouldn't we?" Haru said to her, and guides her into the carriage. He closes the blinds behind her and smiles at her, and wave's goodbye to her.

"Be safe, and be good, Saya," Haru said to her, and Saya nods her head.

Upon arriving, Saya is greeted with a few Ayakashi and Yokais. They are dressed expensively, and she knew they are high class Yokais. But something seems amiss here, and she kept her guards up.

"Greetings, Ichi no Hime-sama," they all bows to her and calls her by her title. She nods her head at them and walks in, not bothering to ask them to rise up.

She is lead to the inner halls, wherein the rest of the Exorcists are in there already. Coincidently, she is sat beside Matoba Seiji himself.

"You look absolutely ravishing, I must say," Seiji said to her with a crooked smile. Saya smirks back to him.

"I do hope you're not having another nightmare because of the curse of your left eye now, Seiji-_kun_," she said to him, and he kept quiet.

The meeting is boring, as per usual. Nothing is out of the ordinary, and nothing is amiss. The old man kept on preaching things like Ayakashi is booming in one area and then the other area has no more powerful ayakashi.

Saya yawned.

"It is unsightly to yawn like that, Ichi no Hime-sama," Seiji said to her from beside, and she clicked her tongue at him.

"My name is Saya. You are not some lowly servant to call me Ichi no Hime. Just Saya would be enough, Seiji_-kun_," she said to him, and smirked at the corner of her mouth.

Seiji loves everything about her. It was that everything about her fascinates him so much he couldn't stop looking at her. He just wanted to reach out and touch her hand, to feel her there, real and sublime beside him. And when she smiles at him, it was like a blind man looking up at the sun for the first time.

The meeting is dismissed after 2 hours of boring talks and documentations. Everyone rushes out to the great hall to have some refreshment prepared there. And there, they met someone else…

"Truly, I can't tell the difference between a human and an ayakashi…" Saya told Seiji, and Seiji laughs out loud.

"Are you serious!?" Seiji said, laughing and holding onto his stomach.

"Stop laughing, I'm serious!" Saya said, slapping on his arm in the process and smiles herself.

"All you had to do is feel the temperature around them," Seiji said after he stopped laughing, holding onto her wrist due to the crowd and pulls her to the table where food is overflowing. He held out a drink to her, and she accepted it. "An ayakashi and yokai is colder than a human's normal temperature. You'll know it when you feel it."

"Is that Reiko-san? Natsume-Reiko?" one of the ayakashi said to his other ayakashi friend, and it caught the attention of Matoba Seiji and Saya.

"Reiko?" Saya said the name. "Did he just said Reiko?"

"I'm afraid so…" Seiji said to her, and begun to be cautious and scanned the crowd.

"Is that… Natori-san?" Saya said to herself, and smiles up at him.

"Natori-san!" Saya calls him, and leaves Seiji behind at the table.

"Ichi no Hime-sama!" Natori said, surprised with the appearance of Saya in the meeting. "I thought you weren't coming? And wow, you wore your onmyouji garbs!"

"My name is Saya, Natori-san. Sa-ya!" Saya said to him, and Natori laughs.

"Alright, Saya-hime," Natori said to her with a bow. "This is my friend, Natsume Takashi," Natori introduces Natsume to her, and Natsume gave her a low bow.

"I-Ichi no hime-sama… Dozo…" Natsume said awkwardly, not knowing how to salute her title.

"Just call me Saya, Natsume-kun," Saya said to him in a friendly tone. "Any friend of Natori-san is a friend of mine!"

"Natori-san," a lady wearing a spectacle came with her bodyguards and the sea of people and ayakashi parted ways to allow her to pass. "You said you'd bring a new acquaintance, so I came here to see him."

"Nanase-san!" Natori said happily, and holding his guard against her. Nanase is a dangerous exorcist, but her powers comes to less than level one when it compares to the Ichi no Hime.

"Ichi no Hime-sama," Nanase bows to her, and Saya nods her head coldly at her.

"You're an eyesore here, Nanase. Go away!" Saya said to her, and Nanase bows to her.

"I shall depart from your sight, Ichi no Hime sama, if you would allow me to talk to Natori-san for a while?" Nanase said to Saya, and the both of them have a staring contest until Natori decided to break the ice.

"Ah, allow me to introduce you. This is Natsume-kun, my friend, and this is Hiiragi, my new servant," Natori said to Nanase, and Nanase's eyes widens at the sound of Natsume's name.

"Natsume?" Nanase said to herself, and opens the blinds that cover Natsume's eyes. "Do you happen to know Reiko? Natsume Reiko?

"Y-you know my grandmother?" Natsume said to her.

"Grandmother? You are her grandson?" Nanase said to him, surprised with the revelation.

"Grandson?" Saya repeated the phrase. "You're Natsume Reiko's grandson?!"

"They said she is very beautiful and very powerful…" Nanase said to him, and palmed his face gently. "You don't have to fight by yourself anymore…"

"My Onii-sama knew Reiko-san," Saya told Natsume, and immediately, Natsume's head snapped to her direction. She smiles kindly at him.

"She used to come by our house when my Onii-sama is still young, and ate the desserts my mother made for all of us. She is sweet, and beautiful, or so told by my Onii-sama…" Saya said to him and smiles at him sweetly. "You should come by our house sometimes, and have the desserts that she used to have. In a way, you shall be living a life she never had the chance to live before…"

Natsume is stunned. Never before had someone asked about his grandmother like this. He thought that everyone had forgotten about his grandmother, and had moved on in their life. Turns out that there is someone who still remembers her, and for that, he is grateful.

At the least, his grandmother did not live a life in vain…

They went away after a while, and Saya continues to talk with Seiji. Seiji is very much interested with her techniques in vanquishing yokai and ayakashi.

"It's just something like a burden my family ancestor's gave me," Saya said to him. "You had no idea how hard I trained to reach this level. Since my Onii-sama is powerless, I am the next in line, and to keep my Onii-sama alive, I would have to do everything they told me to do."

"Keep him alive?" Seiji said to her, confused.

"Don't you know?" Saya said to him. "The first born would be killed if they are found to be powerless just so that their sealed powers would be granted to the next in line of the heir…"

A loud commotion sounded on the second floor, and someone screamed 'Ayakashi!'.

"Ayakashi!" Seiji said, and rushes up to the second floor.

Saya follows suit, and found that Natsume and Natori is in danger. Hiiragi, Natori's new servant, is in danger of getting eaten by the huge yokai, and Natsume had stood in front of her to protect her.

"Kekkai Jutsu!" Saya exclaims, and her fingers are raised to form a magical binding seal over the monster. Natsume is saved, and Saya held her ground on the monster with her Kekkai. "Nao ma san dan bo da nan! Gyaran kishi bari ya hata hata ya ju qi ya so wa so wa ka. On a bi rao shi dai, bari ya hatahata juqi ya sowaka. On abi rao sa lak tan! Nao ma san dan bo da nan!"

The monster escaped Saya's bindings and headed straight towards Natsume. The monster bit on Natsume's arm with the seal on it, and it gave Natsume a chance to hit the monster.

The Ayakashi flew through doors and doors of tatami rice paper doors and escapes.

"Oi, are you alright?" one of the exorcists ask him.

"I'm fine…" Natsume replies him, holding onto his arms. The spell that Hiiragi had written on him had saved his arm. "How is Hiiragi?"

"She's fine. Her wounds are shallow," Natori said to him, and in came Saya from the sides.

"Are you guys alright? Natsume-kun?" Saya asks frantically.

"We're fine…" Natori said to her.

"Sensei!" Natsume exclaims at the cat called Nyanko. In a moment, the Nyanko cat transforms into a huge white wolf.

"The Fire Wolf…" Saya exclaims at the sight of Nyanko in his transformed form. "Madarao!"

"What a huge servant, just who is that child to be able to control such a huge beast?" one of the lesser ayakashi said, and Saya overhears it.

"Natsume-kun…" Saya said to herself, watching as Natsume and Natori ran out of the mansion and out to catch the yokai.


	5. Natsu

**Chapter 5 - Natsu**

It was soon Autumn. Seiji came to Saya's house a number of times, and soon, he starts to warm up to her family and her siblings.

"Come play with us, Seiji-Nii!" both twins calls him fondly and pulls on his arms.

"Yoite, Miharu, don't force Seiji-Nii to do things he doesn't like okay?" Saya calls on from the balcony, and Seiji laughs with them.

Autumn season brought lots of the leaves to fall from the trees, but miraculously, some of the trees still bear fruits. Haru told Seiji that most of the fruit trees fed off waters from the mountains, and the water is so pure and clean that it made the fruit trees bears fruits all year round.

Then, an unexpected guest arrives.

To be precise, it was three guests.

"Konbanwa, Ichi no Hime-sama…" Natsume called awkwardly from the gates of the great residence of Shiratoe. Saya hurriedly went up to open the gates, and saw Natsume, Nyanko and his friend, Tanuma Kaname.

"Natsume-kun!" Saya exclaims in surprise, alerting the rest of the residence in the compounds of the Shiratoe clan. "Come on in! What brings you here to my residence!?"

"Well… we need some help with some yokai, and I am afraid that the yokai has entered into your compound…" Natsume said apologetically, knowing that it was his fault that the yokai has entered her compound. He is worried that the Yokai would be dangerous to her family, as it is said to bring bad luck to those who it lives in their compounds.

"Yokai?" Saya said curiously, leading them to the kitchen and made them sit down there. They did not see Seiji, and neither did he. Haru, however, saw them and greeted them happily.

"Hello there! I am Haru, Saya's most beloved Onii-sama! Who are you guys?!" Haru chirped happily, and sat down with them. Saya smiles at her brother's antics and serves them desserts that she has prepared earlier as their afternoon snacks. There are pau, sweet potato soup, chrysanthemum tea, ang ku kueh and lots more desserts.

"Don't be shy, eat up!" Saya said to them, and they begun to dig in. They had not eaten in one whole day just so that they could chase the Ayakashi, and they are starved. "Why not you guys stay here for the night? Tomorrow is Saturday. It should be a holiday for you guys…"

"Oh no, we couldn't intrude you all…" Natsume and Tanuma said, rejecting their ideas, but Haru patted their backs and laughed.

"Oh, come now. We already have another guest here with us. But we have plenty of rooms here, and the sauna is good as well. It's the waters from the mountains, and I trust you boys need to get a good hot shower after loitering around in the forest…"

"Well, I apologize for intruding. Thanks for the offer. We'll be in your care now…" Natsume said his thanks, and continues to eat his food.

"Well, you haven't introduced yourself to me yet!" Haru said to them. "I am Shiratoe Haru. I am Saya's big brother, and I have two more twin brothers, Yoite and Miharu. They'll come in soon for their food, I'm sure of it…"

"I am Natsume Takashi," Natsume said to him.

"I'm Tanuma Kaname…" Tanuma said awkwardly.

"And I'm the great Madarao!" Nyanko said loudly, and Natsume hits his head and he went dizzy.

"Shut up, Nyanko sensei!"

"Meow…" Nyanko said, dizzy after being hit by Natsume.

"Onee-sama!" both twins ran in with Seiji in their arms. The moment Natsume and Seiji's eyes met, Natsume immediately stood up in fear.

"You-" Natsume called, and Seiji's eyes widens in surprise.

"Natsume-kun?" Seiji called, and smiles up at him. "We do meet each other a lot nowadays now, ne?"

"Seiji-kun!" Saya barked, and put both of her hands on her hips to silence him. He cringed from her.

"Alright, Saya-hime, alright. Today is off day, so I am not an exorcist. I am just Seiji, a guest of Saya-hime herself," Seiji said to them, and sat beside Haru, beginning to take in the pau and the ang ku kueh.

"Seiji used to come to my home to have food and play with my brothers," Saya explains to them. "He teaches them study things and plays with them. In a way, he is babysitting them for me."

"I am not," Seiji said to her and scoffed. "I am merely playing with my men, now, aren't we?"

"Men! Men!" both twins said in unison.

"Oh yes," Saya said to them, munching onto some pau and drink from her glass cup. "You mention that a yokai enters my residence… but my residence is well enhanced with a kekkai barrier. No Yokai could enter here…"

"But I really saw a yokai enter..." Natsume said to her. "He wore all black, and he looks like a human…"

"Looks like a human?" Seiji said, contemplating onto the new discoveries. "Could it be that you have seen a human entering here? After all, Ichi no hime's kekkai jutsu can only block out ayakashi and yokai, not humans…"

"A human!?" Saya exclaims, standing up suddenly and surprising everyone.

"I'll get that human for you later on after I've done with my food. Yum! Everything is so nice!" Nyanko said to her, and continues to stuff himself silly.

"Nyanko sensei…" Natsume said in a defeated tone. But he have to admit it to himself, Saya's food is truly heavenly and delicious. He couldn't get enough of it and kept on eating. He probably had ate more than the share of food he could have handled most of the time, and now that he is here, he felt that he could go on eating forever.

"I love her food as well," Seiji said to them, munching on a pau as well. "Nothing is as good as her food at my place. So I came here constantly whenever I am hungry…"

Natsume froze, and Seiji laughs at his expression.

"Come on, Natsume-kun!" Seiji chided Natsume. "I don't dare to take a bite out of you in Ichi no Hime's mansion. She'll kill me with her Kekkai Jutsu…"

"Kekkai… jutsu?" Natsume repeated the words, and Saya smiles.

"Yeah. I am the sole user of Kekkai Jutsu of the Shiratoe Clan. I can form barriers and a kekkai surrounding the ayakashi and kills them quickly. With some chanting of course…" she said to him with a graceful smile.

"So, you shall stay here for the night. I'll ask the servants to prepare stuff for your room, ne? Clothes are ready as well by the hot springs. You can get your clothes there…" Saya said to them, and they nodded their heads.

With that, they finished with their snacks and Natsume and his friends went in to the room that Saya had prepared for them. It was a luxurious room, and it is so huge and warm and rich that they are in awe with it.

"Wow, this room is awesome!" Tanuma said to Natsume.

"Yeah, it's beautiful," Natsume said to him, and opens the door.

There is a huge pool of water outside the door, and cherry blossoms trees are planted randomly outside there. Since it is autumn, the leaves are starting to turn yellow and golden. They are in awe with the place they are in, and wonders just how rich Saya is when she is just a young thing.

"She is 16, ne?" Tanuma said to him. Natsume nodded his head.

"Then she is bound to go to school. Our school is just four blocks away from her place here. Could it be that she is studying there?" Tanuma asks Natsume.

"I don't know about that…" Natsume replies Tanuma. "But we can ask her later on…"

"Let's go to the onsen!" Nyanko said happily and bounced out of the room.

Upon arriving at the onsen, they saw that there is someone else inside there. They thought that it is Haru, with the long hair and the long bangs.

As they get closer, it turns out to be Matoba Seiji.

"Hello there," Seiji said to them softly. "Come and join me. The onsen here is wonderful…"

They awkwardly settle in the water, and quietness overshadows the tense air around them.

Seiji broke the silence with a small smile, and said to them what he thought of the princess.

"Saya-hime is the first person ever that I ever feel like want to protect…" Seiji said to Natsume and Tanuma, and they both listens attentively. "She is like a flower, beautiful and frail, and yet strong enough to beat me and vanquish my enemies for me with her abnormal monstrous strength. Kekkai Jutsu, they call it. It is only passed down to the ones who are destined to be the Head of the Family. The Kekkai Jutsu skipped her brother, and her brother is powerless. But nevertheless, he is an accomplished apothecarian. He is a genius in finding cures for poisons and makes new medicine now and then. Saya, on the other hand, is the legend. She is the most powerful head ever to grace the Shiratoe clan with her presence at the tender age of 14. She is powerful, and she is pure… she is so innocent, and so naïve, and so kind…"

"She gave me food and lodgings, no question asks even though I am the Head of the Matoba clan. She did not prod or ask, and merely waited for me to open up to her. Her family is so kind to me, and I couldn't have done anything for her, other than keep dangerous exorcist out of her way…"

"Yeah," Natsume said to him. "Haru-san is kind, as well as Saya-hime… she saved my life last time, even though that monster manages to bite my arm. Lucky I, Hiiragi had written a spell on my arm, and so I am safe…"

"You don't have to worry much if you are injured…" Seiji said to him. "Haru-dono is a very accomplished apothecarian. The Shiratoes as well, they have this life water that could save anyone and anyone else from a grave injury. It is precious, and they are locked somewhere only Haru-dono knows."

"Yoite and Miharu appears to have a little of what Saya has in her powers. They are genius as well, being able to form complicated Nenshi at their age right now. Kekkai Jutsu is not an easy thing to learn, and to be able to learn it, one has to let go of one's most precious thing, and to do so, you have to be ready to sacrifice…"

"Sacrifice?" Natsume repeated the word, and Seiji nods his head.

"Just so that you won't let emotions run in your way in the future when the time comes for you to make a decision to save humanity or save the yokai. It is cruel, yes, but we have no choice. You, Natsume, have extraordinary powers that could bend Yokai and Ayakashi with your command. You could make them do so many things, and yet you did not. That made them want to serve you more than when they are your servants. How do you accomplish that, I do not know. But I do know that the Yokai would do anything to make sure you are safe, Natsume…"

"Hello there!" Haru calls and enters the onsen. "Having fun are we? How is the onsen?"

"It's great, Haru-dono," Natsume said his replies.

"Just call me Haru. We're friends, aren't we?" Haru said to Natsume and smiles kindly at him.

Natsume smiles. He felt so at home and at peace here at Saya's residence. Her twin brothers came rushing into the onsen and jumps into the water at Haru's feet. Haru laughs and plays with them.

"Natsu-Onii-chan," Yoite said to him shyly, handing him the towel that had floated to Yoite's side.

"You are… Yoite?" Natsume said, and Yoite nods his head. Natsume patted Yoite's head and Yoite smiles widely.

"Yoite-kun is shy, and rarely allows other strangers to touch him. You're good with kids, Natsume-kun…" Haru said to him, opening his arms for Yoite to come and hug him.

"Oh, I'm not… it's just… well…" Natsume fumbles with his words, and Haru laughs.

"Well, you're good with kids. Natsume-kun, you are kind. But you're too kind sometimes. Be strong, and be as hard as steel when the time comes. Do not let others step on you, and keep in mind that you are a human, and forever you shall be a human. Understood?" Haru said to him, and patted Yoite's small head.

Natsume pondered the words of Haru. What he said is true, but how to make his heart as hard as steel when the time comes? How could he ignore a yokai's cries of help? How could he? He couldn't do it…

"Alright then!" Seiji and Haru stood up. "Time to go to bed. Or else Saya would scold us again…"

"Onii-sama? Seiji-kun? Natsume-kun? Tanuma-kun? Nyankichi-senpai? Come have your chrysanthemum tea!" Saya calls from the outside of the onsen, and everyone shouted back at her.

"Hai!" everyone calls in unison.

They finished dressed in their white yukata and went back to the kitchen. There, Saya has served them iced Chrysanthemum tea.

"Come and have something to cool yourself down," Saya said to them, sitting down on one of the jade stools and waited for them to arrive.

She, too, is wearing a yukata, but her yukata is turquoise in color and has sewing of cherry blossoms. In her hair, there is a single chrysanthemum flower in it.

"Thanks," Haru said to her, and sat down to drink. He ate a piece of fruit that she has cut for them and happily munches on them.

The rest follows suits. Natsume had a new look on Matoba Seiji. He is not cold or calculative in Saya's mansion. On the other hand, he is kind and generous, and offers many advices to him which would help him much in the future.

"You may come and find me if there is anything at all that troubles you, yokai cases or not… alright?" Seiji said to Natsume, and Natsume is grateful to him.

"Now… let's find the culprit that had entered my residence now, shall we?" Saya said with a wide smile and went out of the kitchen into the open space at the backyard.

She drew on a round pattern seal with a wooden stick and stood in the middle of it. The seal is unlike anything Natsume had seen before, and it has the symbols of moon and stars on it.

"Saya draws powers from the moon and stars, as well as the sun. She is the only onmyouji capable of drawing powers from these three sources. Most of the Onmyoujis are only capable of drawing one power source, but she could do three…" Haru explains to them as Saya took her stance and prays in the middle.

"On abi rao zalak tan! Gyaran kishi bari ya hata hata ya ju qi ya so wa ka. On abi rao shi dai, bari ya hata hata ya ju qi ya hata hata ya so wa ka…" she chanted, and light begun to glow from beneath her, surrounding the round ring of power ring she had drawn on.

"Ye, who rest in the waters, come to me. Ye who rest in the moon, come to me. Ye, who rest in the stars, come to me. Ye, who rest in the sun, come to me!" she exclaims, and clapped her hands together. A white glow of light came out from her hands, and they flew to the direction of a small bush nearby.

"There!" she exclaims, and all the men rushes to see where the light had hovered. True to what Natsume had said, a man is lying there in the bushes, appearing to have been passed out. He wore a mask and there is a sword by the sides of his body.

"An assassin!" Seiji said to everyone, surprising everyone.

"An assassin?" Saya repeated the words.

"An assassin," Haru confirmed the truth. "I believe what Seiji had said just now is an assassin… yes."

"I know what it means, Onii-sama!" Saya exclaims angrily, and Haru laughs. "But why an assassin? Why is it here?"

"It is not an 'it'," Haru said to her. "'It' is a man. A man, so 'it' would be a he…"

"I. Know…" Saya grumbles. Haru laughs out louder and Seiji had to hold his laugher in in order to not make her angry.

"Why an assassin here?" Saya asks again. This time, everybody shock their heads.

"We don't know…" Natsume said to her, and helped everyone to tie up the assassin. Saya calls the police, and the assassin is taken away to the police station.

"Now we are safe…" Haru said to everyone with a wide smile.

"But what if they come back?" Saya asked. "What if the assassins come back?"

"We'll increase security perimeter…" Seiji said to her. "I will ask my bodyguards to come here and watch the perimeters. Until this case is solved, they will continue to guard you and your family," Seiji said, and flips out his phone and dialed the numbers.

"But… what about you?" Saya asks him, and Seiji smiles at her.

"I'll be staying right here with you…" Seiji said to her, and her eyes widens.

"Are you nuts?"

"No I'm not…" Seiji said to her. "I am human. Why would I be a nut?"

Natsume barked out a laugh so loud that it surprises everyone.

"Is there anything funny that you would care to share here with us, Natsume-kun?" Seiji said to him, exasperated that everyone kept laughing at him and his language. What's wrong with being straightforward?!

"Nuts is crazy job!" Saya said exasperatedly, throwing her hands into the air. "Nuts is crazy, crazy! Why would you do a crazy job in staying here in my residence?!"

"Because I wanted to make sure you are safe here…" Seiji said to her, and gave her such a look that she crumbles beneath his eyes.

"Now now, now that the event is over, I suggest everyone go to sleep now, ne?" Haru said, clapping his hands together. "Go to sleep, go to sleep. It's over now. Stay for another day, Natsume. Help us find out who the assassin is…"

"Alright. But I'll have to give a call to Touko-san…" Natsume said to Haru, and Haru leads him to the phone in the living room.

"Sure, call her up. Or I can speak on your behalf if you wanted to?" Haru offered with a wicked smile. Natsume cringed.

"Nop. That won't do," Tanuma sided up with Natsume. "I am someone Touko-san has seen before. I will be his reliable person…"

"Alright, alright," Haru said to Tanuma. "You win this time. But seriously, young man, if you need anything else, don't hesitate to knock on my doors. Good night…"

"Good night, Haru-san…" Natsume and Tanuma both said, and watches as the eldest Shiratoe son walks away into the house and into his room.


	6. Suiryuu, Shourai!

**Chapter 6 – Suiryuu, Shourai!**

Natsume, Tanuma and Nanko sensei stays at Saya's residence for two days. They searched for the assassin's head, but to no avail. At last, Natsume had to go home, and he bids farewell to Saya.

"Goodbye, Saya-hime," Natsume said to her with a wave.

"Goodbye Natsume-kun, Tanuma-kun, Nankichi Senpai! Come again soon! And bring your friends along as well!" Saya shouted at them, and Natsume waves back.

With that, they are gone.

"I suppose I should be going back as well, right?" Seiji said to her with a smirk. "I have things to do and documents to sign. I'll return here a few days later…"

"Alright," Saya said to him with a little pout. Seiji patted her head and, in that moment, he had the strangest desires to embrace her.

And he did.

Slowly, he dragged Saya into his embrace, and there he held her, warm and small and safe in his arms for once. Oh Gods above, how long he has longed to hug her just like this. Just like this.

Just like this.

"Seiji-kun…" Saya calls his name, and he embraces her tighter.

"You don't have to say anything," Seiji said to her, putting his cheek on top of her head and savoring her little body's warmth. She is so small, and so fragile, and yet she shines so brightly like the stars.

And of hope for all of them

The hope that she would be the greatest Onmyouji after Abe no Seimei.

She would be their hope.

And she would also be his salvation.

She already has, for she has helped him vanquish the demon going after his eyes. Now, he worries no more, and he can sleep at night as well.

All thanks to her.

And she is his hope.

She is his little star of hope.

The star of hope.

"I want you…" Seiji said to her softly, and she balked in his embrace. He held her tighter, and she calms down. "I love you… without knowing it myself. I tell you things I never told anyone before, and you've changed me. I became alive, and because of you, my icy heart beats again. I love you, like I never love anyone else before… I love you, Saya hime. I love you, Ichi no Hime-sama. I love you, Shiratoe Saya…"

"Seiji…" Saya calls again, and he lets go of her.

"Go on in," Seiji said to her. "I'll be going back. I'll be back a few days later. I promise…"

Saya smiles at him, and bravely, she stood up on her tiptoes and kisses his cheek softly.

"You promised…" Saya said, her cheeks flaming up in embarrassment. Seiji is so surprised he couldn't move, and watches her skipped back to her residence and closes the door. Slowly, a smile forms on his face…

Seiji went back to his manor, and his work had him held on for 2 days. Finally, he finishes his work, and he went over to Saya's house.

"Danna-sama," Seiji's servant came in and bears him a letter. "There is a letter for you…"

"A letter? Now?" Seiji said to him in surprise. The letter is black, and he knew it is a letter from a yokai. Another Yokai meeting? So fast? He thought to himself.

"Prepare the car," Seiji said to his servant, and his servant scurries out of the room quickly.

On the other side of the land…

Saya receives a black letter. She knew it is yokai letter the moment she saw it.

"Yokai meeting? Again?" Saya said to herself, and Haru came into the room again.

"Another Yokai Meeting?" Haru said, reading the letter. But Haru had not an ounce of onmyouji powers, and so he did not have the power to read the letter written by an ayakashi.

"You couldn't read it now, do you?" Saya said to her brother sadly.

Her brother smiles. "It's okay. At least you could read it. I am content with the apothecary. It is so fascinating. The other day I just made a new discovery on Ipaasha flowers! Its essence can cure all sorts of poisons, and it taste and smells like honey as well! It could be your new ingredient in cooking!"

Haru gave her a small vial of golden liquid.

"This is Ipaasha's essence. Use it well, Saya. It can cure all poisons, only one drop shall suffice."

"Thank you, Onii-sama!" Saya said to him, and prepares to leave for the meeting.

When Haru and her brothers, Yoite and Miharu bids them goodbye, she had a sense of foreboding that she won't see them ever again. It weights on her heart and calls her to turn back, but the meeting is important. She had to go.

She couldn't ignore the deep sense of De Ja Vu. There is just too strange, and when she arrives, she is surprised to find that the meeting place is as quiet as a grave.

"Hello?" she calls out, coming out from her carriage. Then she saw Seiji.

"Seiji!?" Saya calls. "Why are you here?"

"I receive an invitation for the meeting…" Seiji said to her, and shows her the black envelop.

_**You are to release the seals surrounding the Shiratoe Clan. It would mark the start of the Meeting, and allows the great Yokai, Ban Ban, to enter to the grounds of the seals. **_

_**Nameless.**_

Saya dropped the letter in shock upon realizing what had happened.

"It's a trick…" Saya mumbles, and ran quickly back to her residence. She ran all the way, feeling that it would somehow take her there faster than going on the carriage or car.

When she arrived, it was too late.

Fire burned the grounds of the Shiratoe Household into crisp ashes. There is a pungent scent of roast meat in the air and, upon realizing what it really was, Saya's knees dropped to the ground harshly and she emptied the content of her stomach violently. Tears flooded her eyes and she did nothing to stop the flow.

She screamed her lungs out, realizing that her only family members have died out in the fire.

"I hate you, Matoba Seiji!" Saya screeched her heart out at the young head of the Matoba clan, who watched onward without a single expression on his handsome stone face, his eyes void of all emotions.

Lurching forward angrily, Saya grabbed two fistful of Seiji's front kimono and shake him in anger. "There is a reason why those yokais are kept in chains and under those seals! They're indestructible, and even if they _are _destructible, they are not done without a price!"

"I am sorry," Seiji said in a toneless voice, his eyes casted downward. Never before had he felt this kind of intense guilt in his being. The warm world that he had been graciously invited into now stood right in front of him in a burning tower of fire. Everything came loose and occasionally, a weak scream could be heard from within the Shiratoe's Residence compound.

Tears flowing in a seemingly inexorable flow of river, Saya pushed Seiji into the cracked wall behind him roughly and let out a bloodcurdling scream of agony.

Reaching into her clothes, Saya withdrew a single piece of yellow paper. Staring at it hard, she clipped it with her forefinger and middle finger before reading the words on the paper.

"Suiryuu…" she breathed out, her tears clouding her vision. Holding the paper higher, she exclaimed out, "Shourai!"

A huge blast of water came out from the seal papers. It showers upon the burning grounds of the Shiratoe and puts out the burning flames. From what he knew, flames from a yokai are hard to be put out, and cannot be put out with water alone. And yet this young girl put it out with a single paper spell. She is so powerful.

So powerful.

With just her Suiryuu Shourai spell paper, she put out the flames burning her house.

Clapping her hands together, Saya stares hard into the burned grounds of her residence.

"Nao ma san dan bo da nan!" Saya continues her chant. Slowly, glowing Sanskrit words started to flew out from her hands and towards the towering shadow that has appeared out of nowhere from her home. It glows and wrapped around the shadow, and the shadow gave out a loud eerie scream. ""Gyaran kishi bari ya hata hata ya ju qi ya so wa so wa ka. On a bi rao shi dai, bari ya hatahata juqi ya so wa sowaka. Nao ma san dan bo da nan! On abi rao za lak tan!"

The shadow burst into a thousand black pieces, and it showers upon them and disappears in a puff of smoke. Seiji looks on with an impressed expression, impress that she, a young girl at her age, could perform such tasking spells and destroy such a huge monster.

As she knelt there contemplating on how to live on without her brothers, the doors opened suddenly.

"Onee-sama!" her twin brothers came running out to meet her. Saya screams in delight and in tears, and is so relieved that she dropped down to the grounds on her knees and hugged her twin brothers tightly.

"Oh, my God! You are safe! You are safe!" Saya exclaims loudly, crying and laughing at the same time. She rocked them in her embrace, and they laughed with her happily.

The next person limped out of the house with part of his clothes burned.

It was Haru.

"Saya…" Haru calls her weakly with a smile, and Saya runs to him and hugged him tightly.

"Onii-sama!" Saya cried into his chest. Haru hugged Saya tightly in his embrace.

"We're fine, we're fine…" he said to her, patting her head and allowing her to cry in his embrace. "Those who are dead are our servants, Wakame and Touhou. We couldn't manage to save them. The rest is fine…"

"I- I thought you were dead…" Saya cried, and bawled in his embrace. "I thought you were all dead…"

"It was all thanks to the young Matoba's spell…" Haru said to her, and she balked in his embrace.

"Seiji?" Saya repeated, her eyes watery.

"Yes," Haru said to her. "He puts a spell over us just in time before the roof collapses. His shiki, to be precise, becomes our shield. It saved our lives…"

"Seiji?" Saya turns around, and Seiji came forward at her with a strange expression on his face.

"I am sorry things turn out like this. But before that, I had made sure you family is safe before I unleash the spell… I did not know that such powerful yokais requires a price to vanquish them… I thought I could make him my pet of sort, since the council asked me to release the seal and such… I am sorry…" Seiji said, his head dropping down low.

Saya left the embrace of her brother and hugged Seiji tightly, surprising Seiji thoroughly.

"Thank you… thank you…" Saya cried, and she bawled in his embrace. Such a shock would have lasted a lifetime in her heart, and it won't go away for a while. Watching her house burns down into nothing is nothing. She is rich, and she has access to the accounts of her treasure and her money in the bank. And so does her brother, Haru.

"You are welcomed to stay in my residence for the time being…" Seiji said to her, and guides her to his car nearby. "For the time being, just stay there. Until your residence is rebuilt, you shall stay there with me…"

"Thank you, Seiji…" Saya said her thanks to him, and wipes her tears away. Seiji took out a handkerchief and helped her to wipe her tears away.

"It's alright now, it's alright…" Seiji said to her, and orders the driver to drive them all to his mansion. For now, he would be the one to protect her.


	7. Surprise

**Chapter 5 – Surprise**

The new residence of the Shiratoe clan is rebuilt in less than a week's time by the sheer power of the Shiratoe clan. With the ridiculous amount of wealth, their manor is rebuilt.

And this time, it is in an entirely new format.

Now that the century old house is destroyed, they rebuilt it with new technologies and retained some of the traditional part of the house. The house is still made with wooden timbre of the highest quality, and hot water system is installed in every bathroom. Saya's room is widened, and it is huge with a new walk in closet and a small bathroom and a bathtub with a wide private window that could be opened to view the garden outside.

A new garden is built, as well as a new pond to begin with. Koi fishes are loaded in, and plants and bonsais are transferred in from the outside to settle into the Shiratoe ground. A few huge cherry blossom trees are planted into the earth outside each of their windows, and it provides a cooling effect for everyone who sleeps in their room. The garden is heaved with chrysanthemum flowers of all sorts and they would bloom wildly in the spring, summer and autumn.

There are a total of 8 guest rooms, and each one of it is humongous huge, complete with a huge bathroom with Jacuzzi and a living room with the largest plasma TV ever. Air-cons are installed in every room and the dining room as well.

There is a huge skating ring at the back of the house. It will be a simple small lake in the spring time, but in the winter time, it would be an ice skating ring for the little Shiratoe family and their friends. In the spring time, the pond is filled with fishes, and anyone who wanted to fish there would be able to fish with the fishing gears in their small tool shed.

Most of the bathroom is built with the traditional concept. No porcelain bathtubs, but wooden bathtubs are built in. They are high, huge, and it could manage 3 to 4 person at once when it is filled with hot water.

The most superb view is the kitchen and the dining room. The kitchen and the dining room still retain their bond, with the dining room inside the kitchen. Sliding doors serves as windows, and it covers the entire wall of the kitchen and the dining room in a folding format. The doors have cherry blossoms painted on it by Miharu and Yoite and Haru, and they have fun painting them.

Natsume and Tanuma heard about the news of the burned Shiratoe house, and came to check up on it with his group of little friends. Sasada, Nishimura, Kitamoto, Taki, Tanuma, Natsume and Nyanko all came to help them rebuilt their home. Even Matoba Seiji came as well with a few of his workers. The house rebuilt in no time, and everyone had a fun and happy time building the Shiratoe house.

Nyanko and Natsume fought a lot, and Tanuma had a hard time trying to detach them when they fought. But Haru came and with one clean sweep of his cold smile, they stopped.

"Fighting are we?" Haru said to them coldly with an eerie smile on his face. Natsume had Goosebumps when he saw him smiling like that. They stopped fighting immediately.

When they are tired, Saya would make all of them lemonades and some little snacks. They all ate the food and drinks heartily, and resumes working with renewed vigor. The workers are glad that they are taken care of so well by the head of the family and worked extra hard to build their fallen home.

At night, they would all sit down outside in the garden in the huge table they have newly made with some discarded ply woods. Everyone would have their meals made by Saya, and they ate them happily with relish. Haru would make jokes, and everyone would laugh.

"Remember when Saya said 'are you nuts'?" Haru asks, and Natsume laughed hard.

"Yeah! And he replies her with an innocent, 'I am human, why would I be a nut?'"Natsume laughed, and everyone laughs as well

The house is rebuilt in no time, and in a week's time, the house is completed.

And Matoba Seiji had a surprise for Saya.

"Saya hime," Seiji calls her, and she came bounded to him happily.

"What is it?!" Saya exclaims, excited that they had their new home rebuilt in such short times.

"Come with me…" he said softly, and Saya closes her eyes.

"Is it a surprise?" Saya said to him with a smile. Seiji did not reply her.

He leads her to her room. The corridor has been widened, and the floor is made from sleek wood. He stopped in front of her room, and slides the door open.

He asks her to open her eyes, and she gasped in shock.

Her room has been changed. It was huge, and there is a huge bed with a canopy of curtains that could be remote controlled to slide up and down. The windows have a deep window ledge to it, and there are cushions piling up on it. There is a built in library, and books are stocked up to the brim there.

She opens a door, and it leads her to a walk in closet so huge it might just be another room. Shoes, bags, clothes, jewelries, and all sorts of hair accessories are there, and they sparkle with beauty. Her bathroom is an entirely different story.

It was like walking into a high class 5 star suites in the hotel. There is a built in Jacuzzi, a marble bathtub, a crystal shower room, heating system, marble sink and most of all, there is an entire shelf worth of essence oil, shampoo of all scents and body showers and lotions as well.

"Oh my God…" Saya said softly, and Seiji smiles.

"You like it?" Seiji asks her. "This part of the house I paid with my own money. It is a gift to you, from me…"

"Seiji…" Saya said his name, and turns around to look at him. "Thank you… I love it… it must have cost so much…"

"I have more money than I can use on my own. I wanted you to be happy, Saya-hime. If you are happy, then I am a happy man…"

Saya chuckles. He leads her to the small sliding door at the end of her room and opens it to reveal another secret world.

It was like a secret garden. Flowers and trees and there is a small pond and a small walkway that leads to a gazebo. There at the gazebo, there are strings of crystals hung all over it, and it forms a curtain of sort around the gazebo.

"This one is my favorite…" Seiji said to her, and leads her there. He parted the curtains, and there, in the middle of the gazebo, is a white plush leaning chair and lots of pillows around it.

"You can read here if you like, and rest whenever you are tired," Seiji said to her, and she smiles.

"Thank you… I love everything… I love it all…" Saya said to him, and he is a happy man again.

But accident happens that day despite the wonderful surprise. Tanuma is possessed by a strange spirit, and he wouldn't stop trembling and muttering incoherent things.

"When does this happens?" Saya asks them, and touches Tanuma's forehead. He screams.

"We went out to the nearby forest…" Natsume replies her, and worries for his friend.

"He's possessed, isn't he?" Kitamoto asks her, and Saya nods her head gravely.

"It is not a simple yokai that possesses him, I'm afraid," Saya said to them. Seiji came and touches his forehead, and again, Tanuma screams.

"He's possessed by a spirit god…" Seiji said to them, and they gasped.

"A spirit god?" Taki repeated.

"To vanquish a spirit god is a crime in the human and yokai law. One can get punishment just for vanquishing a spirit god…If the spirit god so much as dies, then a curse would fell on the onmyouji who vanquish the god…" Seiji said to them, and Saya smiles.

"I can extract the spirit god from Tanuma, but we have to do it fast," Saya said, and begun to bark instructions to her servants. They scrambled in fear and ran to get her the things she wanted.

She places 7 black rocks in a circle surrounding Tanuma, and upon it, a different flower of every kind. Then she places a huge jar containing pure water from the mountains and places it in front of Tanuma. Tanuma jerked his head, and Natsume fears that Tanuma might just jerk hard enough that his head would dislocate.

"Hurry!" Saya barked orders, and they all came to stand away from Tanuma and the circle that she has drawn on nearby him.

It is in the form of 'OM' words. She drew the Sanskrit's words around Tanuma, and Tanuma begun to glow and howl in pain.

"On baishiraman taya sowaka. On isha naya in tara ya sowaka. On jite rashi itara jiba ratano sowaka. On haya baishiraman taya sowaka. On nomaku sanmanda basaradan kan. On age naya in maya sowaka. On hirota ki shanoga jiba tai sowaka. On chirichi iba rotaya sowaka. On a ra ba sha no sowaka. On a bi rao za lak tan! Gyaran kishi bari ya hata hata ya ju qi ya so wa so wa ka. On a bi rao shi da i. Bari ya hata hata ya ju qi ya so wa so wa ka. On a bi rao za lak tan!" Saya chanted, and threw rice on Tanuma.

Tanuma glows, and he howls in a voice not of his own. Soon, the glow leaves Tanuma, and the spirit god came out.

He came out, and floated for a while before he went into the jar of pure water. Saya hurriedly asked her servants to carry the jar and pour the jar of water into the lake mountain water. It would release the spirit god, and allows him freedom once more.

"The spirit god is lost," Saya said to them, asking her servants to carry Tanuma back into his room. "He went into Tanuma's body just so that someone would be able to bring him home. Now it is safe…"

"As expected of the Ichi no Hime," Haru clapped his hands, happy and smiling. "I've never seen you use this spell before. It is impressive."

"This spell drew powers from the mountain itself. It would weaken the yokais staying there if I draw too much. I don't really like this spell myself, but I have no choice. This is the only spell I can use without harming the god within Tanuma," Saya explains to him.

Haru watches Saya departs and went ahead to treat Tanuma. He smiles sadly to himself.

"She saves my life by forcing herself to be the best onmyouji head…" Haru said to Seiji, who stood nearby him and too, watches Saya departs from their sides. "She saves my life, and I am indebted to her forever. I will protect her with my life if it is what it takes for her to continue to live, and I will do it without any regrets…"

Haru glances around him. Although he could not see yokais, he could feel them. The cold air means that a yokai is near, and Haru is a fearsome man to behold when it comes to protecting his sister.

"I will not tolerate any unclean things to harm her. I will make sure they accept a spell so harsh and torturing that they wish they are dead…" Haru said coldly, and sweeps his long sleeve yukata and strides towards their new manor.

Seiji releases a few of his shikis and leaves an ofuda behind him in the garden. It glows and sinks into the earth, erecting a strong barrier around the Shiratoe clan house.

"I, too, will not tolerate anything to come to harm to my Ichi no Hime," Seiji said coldly, and the yokai scrambles to run away from the Shiratoe grounds. "Whoever harms her and her family shall receive pain beyond the graves. This I swear with my soul…"

Natsume and his friends stay for 5 days at the Shiratoe manor. They have fun, and they are happy together when they ate their meals made by Saya. Tanuma recovered from a magical potion given graciously by Haru, and Tanuma couldn't be any more grateful to the older brother of Saya.

"I have plenty of medicine here. Do you want to learn about them? I can teach you if you want…" Haru offered, and Tanuma smiles widely.

Tanuma had a talent with medicine and traditional herbs. He liked to make tea from herbs he picked in the forest, and to be offered this one golden opportunity of a lifetime is like watching gold drop from heaven. He accepted Haru's request, and smiles widely at him.

Natsume and his friends have fun at Saya's manor for days, and soon, time came for them to depart home.

"I do wish you guys would stay here forever…" Saya grumbles and they all laughed.

"We'll come back whenever we could, Saya hime," Tanuma said to her, and bows to her.

"Shota?" Haru calls his servants, and his servants presented a packed square box to them in yellow cloth.

"It is Ipaasha's essence. It can heal all sorts of wounds and poisons quickly, and it can also be used as cooking. There is like a dozen bottles in there. The essence itself is light, so you won't have trouble lifting them. This is my gift to all of you. Come back soon, ne?" Haru said to them with a smile and held his hands together.

They all thanked Haru and Saya for their generosity, and bids them goodbye.

"The house would be quiet again without them here…" Haru said to Saya melancholy, smiling sadly as he watches Natsume and his friends walk away.

"Onii sama," Saya said to him. "They'll come back again soon…"

Haru smiles at her.

Seiji turns to Saya and said his goodbye to her as well.

"I shall come back tonight, if that is alright for you?" he asks her, and she smiles at him.

"Of course! Come back soon! We'll have dinner together, and you can stay here as well!" Saya said to him, and he smiles.

He held her hand up and kisses the back of her hand.

"Thank you, Saya hime. I will come back soon…"


	8. Flower Wine

**Chapter 8 – Flower Wine**

Spring break came soon enough, and Natsume and Nyanko came to visit Ichi no Hime with his school friends. She couldn't be any happier by seeing her friends and screams when she sees Taki and Sasada. They became the best of girl friends, and Saya even teaches Taki on how to evoke powers beyond the spirit world and use it for the good.

"To draw the energy of the mountain and the grounds and of the skies, one must breathe in deep, and be calm. Empty your mind, and chant, on a bi rao zalak tan."

"On a bi rao za lak tan," Taki and Sasada chanted, and they begun to float.

"We're floating…" Taki said calmly, and closes her eyes while she smiles. "We're floating, Sasada-chan…"

Sasada, on the other hand, is so surprised that she screams, and the spell breaks. They landed in a heap and laughs heartily.

"You can't break concentration like that, girls," Saya chided to them with a smile. "You have to concentrate completely, completely! On a bi rao za lak tan!"

Saya sent the boys to the mountains to get her carts after carts of flowers of all kinds. Even Seiji is sent out, and he had so wanted to stay with her in the manor.

But Saya will have none of it, and sent him out of the manor with one clean sweep of her glaring eyes. He silences and grudgingly walks out of the manor with the rest of the boys.

"How is the Ipaasha's essence?" Seiji asks them all, and they reply with a smile.

"My father loves them. It smells so nice, and it made him healthy…" Tanuma said to him with a smile.

"Yeah. Touko-san loves it as well. She said it made her dishes all the more special, and it is sweet and wonderful, like honey…" Natsume said to him, and plucked a Chrysanthemum flower off its stalk.

"We only want the flower, not the stalk, Natsume-kun," Seiji said to him, and cuts the flower off its stalk and dropped it onto a large weaved basket.

"What is she doing with this much flowers anyway?" Kitamoto asks them, and picked a flower off its stalk and dropped it into the large weaved basket.

"I have no idea of it myself…" Seiji said to them with a shrug of his shoulders. "She wouldn't tell me. She just said that she needed the flowers. Maybe she is making some medicine from it…"

They drew the cart back to the Shiratoe Manor. There, Saya greets them happily and took over from them.

She orders her servants to wash the flowers thoroughly, and places them in a wooden bucket. It is there she is going to put it into a large brown jar.

Natsume's co and Seiji saw that there are several large brown jars around the lawn, and they couldn't help but to wonder just what she is doing with it.

"I am making Flower Wine…" Saya said to them after Natsume asks her, and they are surprised with it.

Apple blossoms, chrysanthemum, Sakura flowers, and all other flowers are there. Each one of it is loaded into the brown jars, and she chants while loading the flowers into the jar. She then pours pure water from the mountain and fills it up to the brim.

"Flower Wine?" Natsume replies her. She smiles at him.

"You'll get to take it back home with you later on. It is good for health, and it could lengthen one's life from one single sip of it…" she said to them, and dropped a large batch of chrysanthemum flower into the jar.

"Ai ma li ya kas ta si ya si ya si he. On ai ma li ya kas ta si ya si he. On ai ma li ya kas ta si ya si he…" she chanted, and dropped the flowers into the large jars.

At night, she asks her servants to stand by the jars. And there, they are told to hold onto a red string and a transparent white cotton cloth to cover the jar when the time comes for them to cover it. Natsume and his friends helped as well, and stood by the jars.

The moon came out from its shadow, and shines its everlasting moonlight upon the jars. The jars, upon receiving the light from the moon, glows with the intensity of the moon, and floated.

The water from the jars came swishing out, and surrounds the jars in an everlasting circle of water jets and flowers. They stare at the scene in front of them in awe, and Yoite and Miharu laughs happily at the sight of Flower Wine coming to completion.

The Flower Wine starts to emit a strange yet fragrant smell all over the place. It was so fragrant, as if they are standing in a meadow of chrysanthemum field. The smell enveloped their whole senses, and it is the most magical moment ever.

"Flower Wine! Flower Wine!" both of them happily chanted, and bounced while standing beside Haru.

The jars settle to the grounds, and it is complete.

"Alright, everyone, take out your bowls please…" Saya said to them. She begun to scoop out chrysanthemum flower wine and fills up their bowls as they lined up to her. They sipped the wine, and are astounded to find the taste of the Flower Wine so delicious.

"This is good!" Tanuma said to her, and she smiles.

"It's so delicious! And it's so fragrant!" Taki said, and sipped more of the wine.

"It's very delicious… Flower Wine…" Natsume said to himself.

"Mmmmm Nyan! It's good!" Nyanko said loudly, swaying on his small stubby feet.

Haru packed two bottles for each of Natsume's friends to bring home to. They are all so happy with it that they went home happily.

Seiji, too, receives two bottles from Haru. He said that it was from Saya.

"For the room, she said…" Haru said to him and Seiji smiles.

"Thanks…" Seiji said to him, and departs back to his home. He never could imagine that Saya would be able to make Flower Wine. It was a legendary drink, something that only the spirits are able to make and drink. It is said that it could lengthens one's life, and it could also make one young and youthful with continuous consumption. He never could imagine she would be able to make such a legendary drink.

Natsume brought home two bottles of Flower Wine for Touko and Shigeru. At night, they have the Flower Wine, and Touko marvels at the delicious Flower Wine.

"My, this is delicious!" Touko said to him and touches the side of her face. "Wherever did you get it!?"

"My friend made it… she lives nearby here in the mountains with her brothers. She is an onmyouji, you see, and her brother is an apothecarian. She used to make Flower Wine for an all year round sampling…"

"It's so good!" Shigeru said to him, and laughs as he pours another cup of Flower Wine.

"If it's alright with you, Saya hime… my friend, would like to invite Touko-san and Shigeru-san to stay with her at her residence for a few nights…" Natsume asked them, and they smiles. "They have a huge onsen there, and a huge garden, and a kitchen that is always overflowing with good food and a huge library as well."

"We would be glad to stay with her. And my, this Flower Wine is really good… Maybe I can learn a few tricks from her and make my own Flower Wine… ne?" Touko said with a small shy smile, and continues to sip the wine.

The next week, Natsume brought his aunt and uncle to Saya's residence. Saya greeted them graciously, and invites them into her home.

"Come on in! Don't be shy! Make yourself at home!" Saya said to them, and they smiles at her.

"We are in your care now…" Shigeru said with a bow.

Haru came out to greet them and smiles at Shigeru and Touko.

"Hello, I am Haru, Saya's older brother. And this is my younger brothers, Yoite and Miharu…" Haru said to them with a smile.

"Hello, Obaa-chan, Oji-san!" Miharu and Yoite greeted them both, and they fell in love with them immediately.

"Oh my, you have a very beautiful house…" Touko said to Saya.

"It's newly built. My old house got burned down by some unfortunate event. But it's alright now…" Saya said to them with a smile, and invites them to the kitchen for some food.

There, waiting for them, is the rest of Natsume's friends.

"Tanuma! Kitamoto! Nishimura! Taki! Sasada!" Natsume calls them, and they all waves their hands at Natsume.

"Hello Natsume! Hello Touko-san, Shigeru-san!" Taki greeted them nicely. "Come and sit with us! We're going to have our snacks now…"

"Everything smells so nice here!" Shigeru marvels and his eyes moves all over the place, taking in the beautiful new kitchen with the large Jade table.

Saya serves them a special tea of hers. She took out a large glass teapot, and puts a single round bud of flower into the pot. She pours hot water over it, and covers the glass lid.

Slowly, the flower bud begin to bloom before their very eyes, and the sweet smell of the flower tea permits the kitchen. They watches in awe as the flower blooms in front of them, and they clapped their hands.

"Beautiful!" Shigeru said happily.

Saya pours the flower tea into their cups to let them try it.

"It is made from Ipaasha flower, the very essence that you guys brought home in dozens of bottles last time…"

"It's good!" Taki exclaims to her.

"Yeah, and so does the Ipaasha essence. The Flower Wine is good as well," Natsume said to her, and Saya smiles widely.

"Oh, that reminds me, Saya-hime, where is your school?" Natsume asks her.

"I went to Shota High… it's just nearby… around four blocks away…" she said to them, and the rest of Natsume's friends screams.

"We went there too!" they exclaims, and she lights up in happiness.

"Really!? How come I never seen any one of you before!?" she said to them.

"Perhaps you're in the musical department?" Taki asks her, and she nods her head.

"Yeah. I play the piano and violin… however did you know that?"

"Well, that explains why we never see each other at school. You're on the other side of the building, and kids from there don't usually mix with us from the general department…" Kitamoto said to her in a sad tone.

"Well, why ever is that?" Saya asks them innocently.

"They seem to think that everyone who went to general ed is poor and completely useless…" Nishimura said to her, and hung his head down sadly. "We're not all that is useless. We are good in some field as well… like the soccer!"

"Yeah, and we are good in history and math's as well!" Sasada said to her.

"That is only you, Sasada…" Nishimura said to her. Sasada blew her tongue out at him, and everyone laughs.

"Well, I know who to find now if I went to the general department of the school!" Saya said to them happily.

And true to her words, she did go over to the general ed.

But not without making some commotion.

The musical department students are all powerful students. They are there to create music and learn other things as well. None of them came to the general department. No, never. They never did, and never will.

And Saya is the only student to have done it so far.

She came over nonchalantly and skipped to the General Department. She had heard that Natsume's class is at 2-B, and searches around for his class and somehow got lost.

"Hello," she said kindly to a student there. The student is so surprise that he is speechless.

The Musical Department student has beautiful and different school uniforms. They are dark blue in color, and they have checkered dark green skirts. They have a red ribbon to tie around in front of their collars, and they have gold buttons as their coat buttons. Saya had her long hair braided in front of her in two low ponytails, and she is glowing with happiness.

The poor student is so stunned that he could only point to where she wanted to go. She thanked him and skipped away.

"Natsume-kun!" she exclaims and opens the door to his classroom. Natsume is so surprised that he tumbles out of his seat.

"Whoa!" he exclaims, and fell to the floor in a heap.

"Are you alright? Natsume kun?" Saya said to him and helped him up. The rest of his classmates stare on with amazement. Never before had a music department student went into their school grounds before, much less than looking for a student there.

And that student is Natsume Takashi.

"I-I'm fine, Saya-hime…" Natsume stuttered.

"I'm Saya here! Sa-ya!" Saya angrily rebuked him, and he stuttered again.

"S-Saya…" Natsume said to her, and she smiles again.

"Come! Let's have lunch! Where are Nishimura and Kitamoto!? And Taki and Sasada!"

Natsume called his friends, and they went to the school ground's backyard to have a small picnic. They are happy to be at school together, and again, Saya invites them to her house.

"We're making another batch of Flower Wine! Spring is over soon, and summer is coming. We'll have persimmons soon and the backyard is overflowing with them!"

"Persimmons!" Taki exclaims. She loves persimmons, but the fruit is so expensive that she couldn't afford to buy it all the time. "For real!?"

"Yeah, persimmons!" Saya said to them happily. "We have loads of them. Most of the time we couldn't finish them, and they rot out… it's kinda like a waste, so we wanted to give some to you guys. You can pluck as much as you want, and they are yours to bring back home as much as you can. Onii-sama misses you guys as well. He said the house is quiet without you guys…"

"Cool!" Nishimura said to her. "This is so cool!"


	9. The Dew Water From The Chrysanthemums

**Chapter 9 – The Dew Water from the Chrysanthemum Flower**

Soon, it is summer. Spring ended with a flurry of Sakura flowers, and the heat soon generates from the grounds.

Natsume and his friends constantly came to visit Saya and her brothers at their manor. Seiji, too, comes and goes as he pleases at her place, and often stays there overnight for days. His work is delivered to her place, as he wishes to stay with her.

Touko and Shigeru came with Natsume and Nyanko, and they all lives there happily with Saya and her brothers. Saya taught the girls and Touko skills to cook delicious garlic and shredded fried shrimp paste, and the rest of them couldn't get enough of her food.

With summer, the dew water that is collected in the Chrysanthemum flower is ripe and mature for harvesting. Saya asks all of them to take a glass bottle each, and they went up to the mountains happily.

Haru stays at home and watches their young twin brothers, who bids them farewell and comes back home soon. All of them waves them goodbye, and Seiji held Saya's hand while he walks.

"Seiji-kun…" Saya said his name, and Seiji blushes shyly.

"I like your hand in mine…" he said to her, and she smiles at him.

They arrived at the field of chrysanthemum flowers, and all of them are at awe with the flowers. The flower glows with a magical sort of way, and they all looked like they are gold in color by the power of the moon. Dew water glistened on the flowers, and Saya taught them how to harvest the dew water.

"Just put the bottle underneath the flower and slowly bend the flower to the bottle… its okay if you didn't get it on first try. We have plenty of dew water here…" she said to them, and begun to drip dew water into the bottle.

Soon, the bottles are full, and they went home with the bottles in their hands. They laughed with the jokes Nishimura made, and Kitamoto rebuked Nishimura with something funny.

"You hurt yourself whenever you try to squash a mosquito!" Nishimura said to Kitamoto, and Kitamoto blushes.

Everyone laughs.

"I do not!"

"You do!"

"Did not!"

Everyone laugh and had a great time with each other. Saya couldn't ask for more happiness, and Seiji, too, smiles with her.

Slowly, he gets use to the presence of Natsume's friends. He opens up to them due to Saya's request of him to socialize with them, and he did at her request. He smiles up more, and talks more, and slowly, the rest opens up to him as well.

"Whatever you are going to do with this dew water, Saya-chan?" Shigeru asks her curiously.

"Onii-sama brews medicine using only the dew water and the water from the mountains. It is more effective, and plus, chrysanthemum does have some special abilities to ward off evil and bad luck. That's why our house crest is chrysanthemum…"

So to speak, everyone realizes that the house crest of the Shiratoe clan is a chrysanthemum. For as far as they knew, chrysanthemum is the flower associated with Royalties. Could it be that she is related to royals?

"I'm not," Saya laughs at brushes off their comments. "I'm just a descendent from a great onmyouji family. That's all…"

On their way back, they encountered something evil lurking outside the Shiratoe barrier compound. They are stuck there, and everyone is afraid.

The black beast looms closer to their group, and without another thought, Saya started to chant.

"Nao ma san dan bo da nan!" Saya chanted, and Sanskrit words appear to flow out of her hands through her breath. "On a bi rao za lak tan! Gya ran ki shi bari ya ha ta ha ta ya ju qi ya so wa so wa ka. On a bi rao shi dai, bari ya ha ta ha ta ya, so wa so wa so wa ka!"

The Sanskrit words flew towards the beast, but the beast evades the words powers and pounced on them. Everyone screams.

"Ketsu!" she calls, and binds the beast in its form as it lurches off the ground and hung in mid air in the kekkai Saya built around it.

"Ketsu!" Saya exclaims, and pulls out a blue talisman. Seiji saw it, and is surprised that her powers reach to such a terrifying degree. No one is able to use a blue talisman. It invokes the gods of all Gods, the Raitei, god of Thunder, and the god of Water, Suiryuu.

"Raitei," she said, and electric currents surround her whole being. She glows with the blue power of the current, and her hair swirls round her. "Shourai!"

She pushes her hand and the talisman towards the beast, and the beast fries in the powerful electric current. An impressive display of thunder came down from the skies, and it came at her command. Everyone is stunned and stumbles back at the display of the Onmyouji's powers. The beast howled in pain, and jumps around in the box of kekkai Saya built around it. Soon, the beast dies, and leaves behind a charred body.

"Kekkai Jutsu!" Saya calls and the kekkai she built around it strengthens. "Metsu!" she said again, and the kekkai blew up, leaving nothing behind.

"It's safe now…" Saya said to them, and Shigeru and Touko are so surprised they are speechless.

"You are… Onmyouji?" Shigeru stuttered, and Saya nods her head to them.

"I won't hurt you. I have sworn by the golden rules of heaven to never harm a human while I am still alive. It is something that I uphold in everything I have done. I couldn't have harmed a human even if I tried. My powers prevented me from doing so. I am destined to save mankind… and that is what I am doing…"

"In fact, Natsume-kun here is a powerful seer. His all seeing eyes could see so many of the Yokai worlds that I too, am astounded to have found him so. He could have helped me if he were to be trained. I wish Shigeru-san and Touko-san you would give me your blessings, and I shall teach him ways to protect himself, his families, and as well as save yokais and mononoke from harming humans…"

"Takashi-kun!?" Shigeru said, surprised with the discovery. Natsume is in dilemma. He never told the princess about this fact that Shigeru and Touko did not know about his powers. He shifted his shoes and flitted his eyes here and there, in trouble now for once in his life.

"I can see them too…" Seiji said to them, standing in front of Natsume. "As well as Tanuma and Taki sometimes. Sasada too can see them now. Kitamoto and Nishimura couldn't see them because they do not have the chi to see a spirit. Natsume is the most powerful seer out of all of us here, of course, other than Ichi no Hime here…"

"Ichi no Hime?" Touko repeated the words.

"I am Ichi no Hime. I am the Head of the Shiratoe clan… I mean you no harm, Touko-san, Shigeru-san. It is better to train Natsume earlier when he is still young. It would be difficult to train him later on when he is older. The spells won't settle on him, and he wouldn't be able to chant the spells later on…"

"Natsume-kun…" Shigeru walks to him and patted his shoulders. "You sure this is what you want to do?"

"Shigeru-san…" Natsume said his name, and Shigeru smiles.

"I always knew you are a little different. But I never knew you could see them. You are just like that girl who came to my house so long ago and kicked out the evil spirit living in my home…and I know it came back, and you kicked it out again for us… thank you…"

"Shigeru-san…" Natsume said tearfully, and knelt in front of them. "I'm sorry. I was afraid you guys won't like me anymore, and call me a liar, and kick me out of the house again. I love it here. I love to stay with you guys, please, don't kick me out… I don't have anywhere else to go…"

"Takashi-kun…" Touko said to him gently and held him in her arms as he cried. "We love you like you are our own son. You are so kind, and I am not afraid. Spirits are kind sometimes; you don't have to hide anymore…"

"Damn it man," Nishimura said to him. "You never told us of your abilities!"

"It's cool!" Kitamoto said to him with a smile and slapped his back. "I like it man!"

"You guys…" Natsume said, tears sliding off his eyes.

Saya came to him and hugged him after Touko. He is so surprised that he is silent and stunned.

"Don't be sad, Natsume-kun. Even if the whole world of people doesn't want you, we want you. You can come to us anytime at all. We are a family, if you want to… alright?" Saya said to him and smiles when he broke down into her shoulders.

They went home together, and for once, Natsume is happy that he won't have to hide anymore. Shigeru and Touko sees Natsume in a new light, and finds that he is indeed a kind and honest boy, with a sad past and a terrible secret. Now that they knew, they understood him more. They find that all the things he have done, all the weird things that happens around their home came from him, and it is because of him that it happens.

But nonetheless, nothing evil happens. Natsume is a blessing for them. To them, Natsume is their son, and if they have passed on, Natsume shall have everything they have. They love him, and wanted him to be happy.

In fact, Touko is so excited that Natsume could see ayakashi and yokai that she constantly ask him if there is yokai around. He replies her yes, and she exclaims.

"Oh, where, where!?" Touko said to him, and searches around with her human eyes.

"They're there, by the roadside. It's a kappa…" Natsume said to her, and she ran up to the kappa.

The kappa ran upon seeing her, but Touko thought that it is still there.

"Hello, kappa-san!" she said to the kappa, and Natsume laughs.

"It's no longer there, right?" Shigeru said to Natsume, and Natsume nods his head.

Haru greeted them at the doorstep. He had seen the Raitei Shourai spell Saya has casted on the beast, and worriedly asks if any of them are hurt.

"We are fine, Haru-san," Tanuma said to him. "Saya-hime here saves us with her magnificent spell. I wish I am powerful enough to learn that though…"

"You could. I'll teach you!" Saya said to him, and he lights up in happiness. "The Raitei Shourai spell and Suiryuu Shourai spells are easier than my OM spells. You'll be able to learn it in no time…"

"Cool!" Tanuma said to her.

"Can we learn too!?" Kitamura and Nishimura begged her. She smiles at them.

"You don't have enough chi to learn the Onmyouji skills… I'm sorry…" she said to them apologetically. They sadly trudged into the house.

"But you know what?" she said to them. "You can go up to the mountains there and have a dip at the waters there. Its water is clean and pure, and the air is full of chi. you can increase the power of your chi there, and with that, you might be able to learn a few of the Onmyouji skills…"

"Really!?" they cheered, and did a strange dance of sort. Everyone laughed at them.

The next day, they woke up early at dawn and begun to shuffle towards the backyard of the Shiratoe clan. It is one of the places untouched by the monstrous fire months ago. They hold a small basket in their hand, and they went to the orchard with the persimmon trees.

The trees are overflowing with persimmons. Taki exclaims at the sight of the persimmons, and begun to pluck it and ate one with relish.

"It's so sweet! Kyaaa!" Taki exclaims, and Saya smiles at them.

"They drank water from the mountains. It is pure, and we have them during summer time all three months. You can take as much as you can and bring it back home with you. It'll rot if no one eats them, and it is such a waste…"

"Thanks!" Kitamura and Nishimura said to her, and begun to pluck the persimmons from the trees and places the fruits into their baskets.

Shigeru and Touko had the time of their life. They liked the resident of the Shiratoe, and its calm and quiet environment gave them the kind of peace they have not been able to feel a long time ago.

"It's so nice here…" Touko said to Shigeru, and he smiles. He remembers the time when the rest of the boys would go to the Onsen together, and they play in the water until their hands are puffed up and pruned.

Yoite and Miharu adore Shigeru and Touko, and took it upon them to treat them like their own aunt and uncle. Touko adores them as well and often brought them around to tell them stories of her when she is young.

"It is nice…" Shigeru said to her. "It's so peaceful here… like an entirely other magical place to be in… I am so happy here…"

"We should come by often…" Touko said to him, and he smiles.

Saya starts to teach Natsume on how to use spells to bind Yokais. Since she is the only one who can use Kekkai jutsu, she did not teach him that particular skill.

"To call upon the power of lightning, you should be calm, and at the same time, focus on your enemies. Let them know that you are there to save humanity, and to do so, you are to invoke the power of the lightning," she said to him, and gave him a blue talisman.

"That is too much for him…" Seiji started. "Raitei is too much…"

"He'll be able to," Saya said to him. "I trust him."

With that, Natsume heaves a deep breath and raised it high into the air.

"Raitei," he calls. "Shourai!"

Nothing happened.

Birds pass by, and a crow squawked.

"With feelings, Natsume! With feelings!" Saya exclaims at him.

"I'm trying…" Natsume said to her, and tried it again.

Still nothing.

"Let me try, let me try!" Taki started, and Saya gave her the blue talisman.

"Raitei," Taki said. "Shourai!"

A small spark of lightning erupted from the paper and burned the paper to ashes. She screams and let's goes of the paper.

"Nice try, Taki," Saya said to her and clapped her hands. Natsume felt so down he couldn't do anything at all.

"Don't worry, Natsume-kun…" Saya said to him. "It took me 2 months to get to summon Raitei Shourai. Powers do not grow from nowhere; it needs to be coaxed out. Lure it out, ask it out, and most of all, lower down your pride, and let it in."

Natsume closes his eyes and breathes in deep.

"Let yourself go. Let yourself be empty, devoid of any emotions. Nothing. Nothing is inside you, and you are one with the nature and the air…" she said to him, and slowly, he begun to feel light.

He felt a spark came into his mind, and he knew, he could do it.

"Raitei," sparks of blue electric enveloped his beings. The wind whipped up, and his hair is blown back. "Shourai!" he exclaims, pushing his hand and the talisman between his fingers up to the air and the thunder came crashing down on him in great torrents of blue lightning.

Soon, it subsides, and Natsume is out of breath. He collapses on the ground, and Saya and the rest of his friends went up to help him.

"Natsume-kun!" Saya exclaims, turning him over. Natsume had a smile on his face.

"I did it…" Natsume said softly. Saya smiles at him and laughs.

"You're good! Good try on your first ever Raitei Shourai! In just one day! You're a genius! And such powers from the God of Lightning… you are loved by the Gods, Natsume-kun…" she said to him, and Nishimura and Kitamoto helped carry Natsume to his room.

There, Haru nursed Natsume to his health. He gave him Ipaasha Essence, and with it, Natsume recovers fully with a few small black burns on his cheek and his arms.

"Oh, my," Touko said in surprise when she got to know that Natsume have been dealing with dangerous spells. "Is he alright? Where is he? Takashi-kun?"

"I'm here, Touko-san," Natsume limped to her. He is fine now after taking the Ipaasha Essence. He could feel his skin mending right now, and he marvels at the power of the Ipaasha's flowers. "I'm fine. Just a bit burned, that's all."

"Oh my, you should take care of yourself better than this, Takashi-kun!" Touko chided him.

"Lucky him, Haru-sama gave him the Ipaasha's Essence. He'll heal in no time… don't worry, Touko-san," Tanuma said to him.

"Nyan!" Nyanko came bounded into the house and everyone laughs at him.

"Nyankichi-kun must be hungry now, ne?" Touko said to them, and they laughed more.

"I'm sorry to intrude upon you and finishes up your food, Saya-chan…" Touko said to Saya.

"It's alright; I have plenty of food I couldn't finish myself. I need someone to help me finish them or they'll rot! It'll be such a waste now, doesn't it?"

"You are too kind, Saya-chan…" Touko said to her, and Saya smiles.


	10. Sui (Water)

**Chapter 10 – Sui (Water)**

More and more people got possessed by evil demons and evil yokais. The rest of Natsume's friends and aunt and uncle were there to witness it when they were brought in, trembling and screaming nonsense.

"Bind him! Hold him down!" Saya exclaims to her servants, and her servants held the man down as he screams. But his powers when he is possessed is great, and he breaks free from the servant's holds and went to attack Saya. She avoided the man's sharp fingernails, but her face was scratched.

"Om!" Saya exclaims, and clapped her hands together. A force field came out from her being and pushes the man to the center of the ring that she had drawn on with salt.

She bit her finger and drew a Sanskrit word in the middle of her palm. She clapped her hands together again and chanted.

"On a bi rao za lak tan!" the man screams, and he is pushed to the ground. "Nao man san dan bo da nan. Gyaran kishi bari ya hata hata ya ju qi ya so wa so wa ka. On a bi rao shi dai, bari ya hata hata ya ju qi ya so wa so wa ka. Nao man san dan bo da nan!"

The spirit came out of the man's body and mouth and eyes in dark black spirals of smokes. The rest of Natsume's friends shiver in fear, but at the same time marvels at her power in vanquishing and exorcising demons and evil spirits.

"Sonata wa uchi no mizu no kaze to nomi toite… toki hana te… (In the name of the water and the wind within thee, unbind him)…" she chanted, and the spirit disappears into the air.

The man slumped on the ground, and Saya asked her servants to carry him to the back of the medical room for Haru to treat him. After treating him with their precious Ipaasha flower Essence, Haru came out from the medical room with a sullen expression.

"It's the third one now in this month…" Haru sigh and Seiji frowns.

"They are piling up…" Seiji said to them, and crosses his hand. "We can't just sit around and do nothing. There must be something brewing within the forest…"

"There is actually…" Saya said to them.

Everyone looked at her.

"The mountains used to keep a powerful yokai under its binds in a sacred stone. No one can kill the yokai. It's too powerful, and rumors had it that whomever who manages to kill the yokai will gain incredible powers after its death. But none can do it…" Saya said to them.

Suddenly, a loud scream emanated in the air. Everyone is alert, and turns around to see what it was.

A black spirit of sort is charging towards Natsume, and Natsume had no time to run.

"Natsume! Use your spells!" Saya exclaims, and Natsume withdrew the seal paper from his pocket.

"Raitei," Natsume chanted, and lightning begin to course through his body. His hair blew and ruffled by wind and electric, and his whole body is lightened with blue lightning. The lightning display is impressive, going as far as to cover the grounds that Natsume stood and the grounds that he stood around him. It is blue, and it is powerful. "Shourai!"

A great torrent of electric came from the skies and thunders upon the black spirit. But the black spirit escaped, and changes its course to attack Saya.

It screams in a bloodcurdling scream that had everyone covers their ears.

"Fuuka!" Saya withdrew another piece of seal paper. She chants the name on the seal paper, and great torrents of wind begun to blew all around her. "Shourai!"

A tornado whipped around her all of a sudden out of nowhere, and circles the spirit and trapped it within its windy trap. The spirit howls.

"Kashin!" Saya again withdrew another piece of seal paper. This time, it is red in color. Fire begun to lick at her grounds, and covers her entire body in its red flames. She appears to not be affected by it and her eyes turns fiery when she unleashes its powers on the black spirit. "Shourai!"

Fire in the form of a huge dragon came down from the skies and drowns the black spirit entrapped within its windy trap. With the wind, the flames become a huge torrent of fire tornado, and it whipped up to the skies in its greatness. Everyone marvels at the power that Saya wields in awe, and stepped back to allow her to finish the job.

The last of the black spirit's screams disappears with the great torrent of the fire tornado. The fire tornado disappears as soon as the black spirit dies, and subsides down to nothing afterwards.

"Another one…" Haru said grimly, and frowns in thinking. "Why would a dark spirit tries to enter here? And it goes after Natsume as well…"

Everyone looked at Natsume.

"What is it?" Natsume said curiously.

"Have you invoked on the wrath of any dark spirits before this, Natsume-kun?" Saya asks him, and touches his forehead. Natsume stumbles from the intensity of Saya's gaze, and she leans in nearer and stares into his eyes.

She held his hand and read the readings on his palm. She touches his face with her hand, and she slaps him hard on the face and said, "KATSU!"

"Oi oi!" Natsume complained, holding onto his face. "Why did you hit me, Saya?"

"Not possessed… hmm…" Saya said to herself, and Seiji and Haru nod their heads. They came in closer to Natsume, and leans in to him. Natsume stumbles back.

"You did invoke on the wrath of the dark spirits in the forest…" Seiji said to him, reading the aura around his face and finds that there are dark clouds surrounding his face.

"When? Where? How? Give me details if you want to survive today…" Saya barked at him, and he stumbles back.

Just then, a knock sounded on the door. Haru opens the door and greeted the man who came into his home.

"I am Natori Shuuichi… a part time exorcist…" he introduces himself to the rest of Natsume's friends and uncle and aunt and Saya's family. "I came in regards to Natsume-kun… I've read his luck this month, and it is dark and bad… I am worried, so I tracked him with my servants…"

"Another Exorcist?" Taki said, and stares at Seiji.

"Don't look at me…" Seiji said to her. "I did not summon him…"

"I summon myself here!" Natori said happily, taking off his hat and bows at them. "At your service, Ichi no Hime-sama…"

"I've guessed that you are here to stay then?" Saya said to him, and barked orders to a nearby servant to prepare another room for the new Exorcist.

That night, Saya rebuilt and strengthened her barriers surrounding her home. She feels unsafe, and needs to add a few more layers of barriers to make her family and her friends safe from all harms. To do so, she must chant music of sort, and then she can spin her barrier.

She sits in a stool that is placed in the middle of her lawn, and plays the musical instrument in her hand. It is unlike any other musical instrument. It is special, and its only job is to spin magical barriers. Only the Head of the Family is capable of using it, and the instrument would only obey that one person alone…

_Soshite bouya wa nemuri ni tsuite[And so the little boy fell into his slumber]_

_Ikizuku hai no naka no honoo[The gasping flames within the ashes]_

_Hitotsu, futatsu toone by one]_

She sings, and everyone watches as she begins to glow brightly like the star. She glows, and the light turn's gold as the barrier is spun out of the musical instrument. The barrier rose up to the skies, enveloping the Shiratoe ground completely from top to bottom to underneath the ground in a huge sphere.

_Ukabu fukurami itoshii yokogao[Rise up and expand into that beloved face]_

_Daichi ni taruru ikusen no[suspended from the earth in thousands of]_

_Yume, yume[dreams, dreams]_

_Gin no hitomi no yuragu yoru ni[On the night when those silver eyes trembled]_

_Umareochita kagayaku omae[You were born, shining brightly]_

_Ikuoku no toshitsuki ga[No matter how many prayers are returned to the earth]_

_Ikutsu inori o tsuchi e kaeshite mo[Returned to the earth by the passing millions of years]_

As she spins, the barrier grew stronger, and they could hear a strange heavy sound on top of them, building and building and coming on top of one another with another layer of barrier forming on top of one another. The sound is akin to something being piled on top of a fragile thing, and it creaked and cracked. It became their safe walls. It became their sanctuary.

And Saya is magical.

She spun the barriers, and they all felt safe once more. Touko and Shigure stare at her in awe, and saw with their eyes how the barrier came to be.

_Watashi wa inori tsuzukeru[I shall continue to pray]_

_Douka kono ko ni ai o[No matter what, shower this child with love]_

_Tsunaida te ni KISU o[And kiss on the connected hands]_

As she stopped playing, the barrier made a strange sound that sounded like glass being played with wet fingers. The sound vibrated, and the barrier becomes transparent. And with a loud whooshing sound, the barrier is complete.

"Now no evil yokais can enter here…" Saya said to them, smiling widely as she skipped to them.

"The song you sang just now… it's beautiful…" Touko said to her, her hands clasped in front of her chest and admiring the beautiful girl in front of her.

"It's a lullaby actually. See… my brothers are asleep…" Saya said to them, and pointed to her twin brothers.

True, they are slumbering there on the floor on each other's back. Everyone chuckles. Haru and Seiji each carried the twins and carried them to their room and settle them down in bed. Saya's lullaby truly did wonders to them. They would usually stay up stubbornly trying to play with 'Natsu Onii-chan' and the rest of his buddies and friends. Now that Saya had sung, they had slept like a log.

"Was it a spell as well, Haru-san?" Seiji asks Haru, who had smoothed Yoite's hair from his forehead with a small smile.

"Hmm? Oh, that? Well, it's just a song actually. Any song will do. As long as she plays the instrument. But if she just blindly plays a song, it would not be exciting now, wouldn't it?" Haru said to Seiji and exited the room of his twin brothers. He turns on the lights on the ceiling, and the astrological signs on the ceiling and comets all started to move in a magical sort of way. It is another one of Seiji's gift to the twins. They love it so much, and used to watch the stars zooming across the ceiling and fell asleep that way.

"What's with the 'In the name of the water' spell she used just now?" Seiji asks Haru, who guides him back to the kitchen, where the rest of Saya's friends are eating midnight snacks there. "She never used that spell before…"

"When a spirit is so forcefully in one with the soul of a human, when you try to separate them, it would harm the soul. Sometimes, the human's soul would be injured, and dies from the result. You can't heal a soul with normal medicine. It has to be healed with something that belongs in the spiritual world… like the Ipaasha Essence, or the Chrysanthemum dew water from the mountains…" Haru said to him, sighing and looking up at the moon.

The moon is particularly bright today, and is large and shining. Seiji, too, looks up to the moon, and stares at its absolute beauty.

"The spell is made by her. She finally manages to invent a spell that will separate the spirit and the soul without ever harming the soul; no matter how close or how intertwined the soul is to the spirit. It is called the Water Spell… the Sui spell…"Haru said to him, explaining the spell's use to him. "The Sui spell is the most powerful spell in our family. It draws the inner strength of her soul, and calls upon the powers of our ancestors. They would, in a way, 'shourai' to her, and help her to vanquish the evil, and unbinds the spirit that is intertwined with the soul…"

"Shourai?" Seiji repeated the word.

"Shourai means come forth in the language of the Gods and of the Old…" Haru said to him. "She is capable of speaking the language of the Gods and of the Old since she is a young thing, and that is why she is the destined one to take over as the Head of the Family. Shourai is a powerful word… it invokes the Gods in such ways that the Gods, with who is created from the thoughts of the humans, would come forth to her regardless of the circumstances… Her favorite God is Touda…"

"Touda?" Seiji said. "Touda… as in the God of Fire?"

"The very same…" Haru said with a smile. "Touda has been with her since she is a baby. She summons him with her cries alone, and the God is with her all the time… it's just that he did not make himself appear to you guys, that are all. Touda is a God that no one likes and fears a lot, but Saya here likes him enough to make him her personal God and her 'Shourai' God… which explains why her Kasshin Shourai spell is that of a dragon from heaven. It is Touda, actually, in the form of Kasshin Shourai spell…"


	11. Lake

**Chapter 11 - Lake**

While they are still there staying in Saya's new manor, Saya took the opportunity to bring them to the special lake up ahead in the mountain.

High, high up in the mountain.

They had to walk for miles up the steep mountain, and Nishimura complained with a loud whine.

"I'm so tired…" he whined, and Kitamoto waves his hand behind him to shut him up.

"You won't arrive sooner if you whine so much…" he said to him, and walks on to the steep mountain.

"Relax, guys," Saya said to them and climbs the steep mountain. "You'll get to have a little fun if you sacrificed a little of your energy by climbing up the mountain. You'll love it!"

Seiji smiles. There is just so much surprise and new things to learn about with her. For all the time he has stayed with her, she has given him and her friends so much surprise that he didn't know if he is capable of feeling anything at all now. But still, he is still surprised with her. And her antics, and her personalities.

She invokes such feeling in him that he is almost constantly surprised with her. She would fetch out her exquisite Flower Wine, and her Ipaasha Essence, and her techniques of the Shourai spells. He never knew someone to have so many exquisite qualities in her, and he did not know that she, Shiratoe Saya, would make him fell in love with her so much.

So very much.

"Come on, guys!" she exclaims happily, and climbed the mountain. Nishimura whined, and climbs up the mountain weakly. They finally arrive at the top of the mountain, and there, Saya leads them through a small passageway that is full of flowers.

"It's so beautiful!" Taki said to her, admiring the many flowers growing in an archway. It was manmade, and they knew that it has something to do with the Shiratoe clan as well.

"It's made by one of the spirits of the mountains. He's long gone now, but the archway remains…" Saya said to them, and then, they came out from the archway and into the most magically beautiful place.

The lake water is shimmering in the most beautiful colors. Rainbows are there as well from the massive waterfall. It created a magical sort of place for them all with the sparkling lake that shines so much it looks as if there are diamonds in them.

"Most of the precious jades in our home are from here…" Saya said to them. "There are raw jades and gems in here. We can't take all of them home, of course. Some of them had to remain here for the nature. But you can take some home with you. It's valuable enough to buy three houses with one single jade piece…"

"Three houses!?" everyone exclaims in surprise. Saya nodded her head innocently.

The boys scrambled and went into the water. Taki and Sasada took off their clothes and dip into the lake with their swimwears. They have fun there, while Saya watches them swim.

"I can't swim…" Saya said to them. "I am a sinking rock. Plus, I am forbidden to swim in it because of my main Shourai spell…"

"Main Shourai spell?" Natsume asks curiously. "What is your main Shourai Spell?"

"Kasshin and Fuuka…" she said to them. "Sometimes I would use Raitei, and it is associated with Kasshin and Fuuka in a way. My main Shourai Spells are associated with fire and wind, and is an opposite of water in every way…"

"Alright then," she said to them, standing up on a piece of rock and gave a piece of blue talisman to each of them. "You may as well practice calling the Raitei in the waters. It is more effective, but please don't call on 'Shourai'… just Raitei would be enough…"

Nishimura and Kitamoto are given one as well, and they are excited as hell.

"Now that you've imbued yourself with the nature of the spiritual water, you are capable of calling on the powers of the elements now. You have the proper chi to call them with the power of the waters now…"

Nishimura started, and he calls, "Raitei!"

Small sparks of electric coursed through him, and he shivers from the feeling. He gave out a loud laugh of victory, and accidentally calls on the complete name of the spell.

"No! Don't!" Saya screams, but it was too late.

"Shourai ya!" Nishimura calls happily, and out came the electric powers that came from the skies and electrocuted everyone in the pool.

"-call on the complete spell…" Saya finishes her words, and looks on as the pool of water smokes…

They went back to the Shiratoe house, but before that, they get to have a little fun with the high mountains from the lake.

Saya stares on and tries her best to not chuckle at the now charred Natsume and co and Seiji. They are black from top to bottom, and everyone is glaring at Nishimura.

Nishimura looked down at his foot guiltily and refuses to look back up to them.

"Alright, guys?" Saya said while chuckling, trying her best to avert Natsume and co and Seiji's attention from Nishimura. He knew he had done something stupid to jeopardize the lives of everyone in the pool, and he is sorry for it. Saya knew, and tries to help him with a smile and a chuckle from time to time. "Grab two pieces of this and sit on it…"

"Sit on it?!" Natsume exclaims and plucked a huge strange leaf.

"This is Ti Leaves. It can be made into tea when it is dry, but I don't really like it because it taste like those cheap tea drinks and tasted rather bland. And so, this leaves are strong, and it will give you the right ride right back to the Shiratoe residence…" Saya said, and forces Seiji down to sit on the leaves.

"Here," she said to him. "Hold the leave's stalks between your legs, and off you go!"

With her last word, she pushes him off the cliff and he went sliding down in impressive speed down the wet grasses. There is a few small stream of mountain water, and it made the grasses there wet. There is even a pathway there, and as Seiji slides down quickly, he screams loudly for the first time in his life.

Everyone gaped.

"Come on! It's fun!" Saya said to them, and pushes Nishimura next. He went down and screams out his lungs, and enjoys the speed from the high mountain. It was a long ride, and they had fun sliding here and there from the high mountain.

Next went Natsume and Nyanko, and Taki and Sasada, then Takuma and Kitamoto. The last to go is Saya.

Natsume and Co and Seiji and Saya all screamed heartily into the wind as they slides down. Rain is coming, and they are soaked to the bones with the hot rain from the summer skies.

Underneath the summer skies, the gang slides down and have their fun with the wind and the water. They are one with the wind, and as they slides down, they gave a loud cry of happiness and laughs out loud. Seiji, although shocked at first, got over it after a while and begun to enjoy sliding down from the mountain. It was a pretty long ride, and they had their fun with it.

And when they finally got back home, they are soaked wet through the bones.

And Haru is there to greet them.

With a little surprise.

"W-what happened?" Haru asks with a stunned look at the looks of all the others who had their hair stood up on ends and an equally black body to begin with. Everyone gave him a sullen look, and trudges into the house and back to their room.

Haru stares on, surprised with the new looks. They look as if they have been electrocuted thoroughly.

And he began to laugh.

He pointed at them one by one and laughs heartily. The boys look on sullenly and trudges to their shared room.

"Nishimura-san invoked the Raitei Shourai spell when he is still in the lake… the rest were with him too…" Saya said to him, and Haru laughs harder.

Seiji is off worse. He tried to save Nishimura, and is the closest one to him. His hair stood up like spikes of cactus, and it won't go down no matter what he does to it. And lastly, he came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped up on his head and face.

"H-hi… Seiji-san…" Kitamoto said to him, stuttering when Seiji strode out of the bathroom with a towel on his head. Seiji nods his head at him and scrambles back to his room.

And closes the door behind him. He sighs, and took off his towel and let it drop on the floor.

And opens his eyes only to saw Saya sitting there in the living room.

"S-Saya!" Seiji exclaims in surprise. "Whatever in the world are you doing here!?"

She smiles at him and pulls him to the outer wooden platform of his room. His room had a marvelous view of the garden, and it leads straight to Saya's room right beside him. He is glad to have this room to himself, as he can protect her all the more when she is nearer to him.

"Come, Seiji-kun," she said to him and forces him to sit down on the wooden platform. Then she took out a small chrysanthemum painted black comb and started to comb his hair.

She softly grasped his hair and combs it one section by one section. It was like magic. Her hands worked wonders to his frizzy hair, and it smoothens down with each stroke of her comb. Her hand is soft and gentle on his hair, and slowly, he is lulled to a short nap.

His hair is smooth again after she finishes combing his hair, and it resumes its former silky glory. She ties it in a red hair tie, and patted his shoulders gently.

"There…" she said to him. "All done…"

Seiji took a mirror and looked behind him. She had helped him comb out the spiky parts of his hair and now it is smooth like before.

"Thank you…" he said to her and smiles at her. Saya smiles back at him and exclaims happily at the sight of something behind him.

It was the cherry blossoms.

The cherry blossoms have been blown by the wind, and with the hot season of summer, the flowers begun to wilt and flows down from its branches on the tree. It floated down in such a dreamy way that it is beautiful.

She escapes into the garden barefooted, and begun to dance underneath the cherry blossoms. She grasped the cherry blossoms in the air, and took the huge pile of cherry blossom flowers and threw it up into the air and laughs happily.

"It's so amazing!" she exclaims loudly and laughs into the air. "It's so beautiful!"

Seiji quietly took out his phone and snapped a photo of her dancing underneath the cherry blossom tree. He had been taking her photos since forever, and this one is his favorite.

She is so carefree, and so sweet and kind. He will never forget her in this life, and he vows to make her his with every way in the world. He wanted her, and he will have her as his and as his wife soon. But for now, he lets her have a little freedom. Because he knew, she is waiting for him too…


	12. The Boy that the God Loves

**Chapter 12 – The Boy that the God Loves**

Natori stays with Saya and her friends for a few days. They got along pretty well, and Seiji, after seeing Natsume conversing with him at ease, he started to open up to the Matoba Exorcist.

"I am just Seiji here at Saya's residence. I am not an Exorcist…" he said to her, and Natori patted his back like best buddies, surprising him from the inside out.

"That's more like it!" he said to him with a wide smile. Taki and Sasada swoons at the sight of the famous actor, after he had took down his disguise and realizes that he is the real Natori Shuichi.

"Oh, he's so charming…" Sasada said in a swoon.

"And so handsome…" Taki said in a swoon voice as well, and 'kyaaa' when he looked over at them.

"I have heard that you used your rare Sui Spell, Saya-hime," Natori said to her. "Only at rare circumstances would you use it. Would you mind telling me the details of those possessed men?"

"Well," she started. "First, these possessed victims had their souls tightly intertwined with the evil spirits. They are one, and only the Sui Spell could save them…"

She stares sadly at the ground and walked with him and Seiji to the cherry blossom garden. Natsume is there as well, and discusses things with them.

"Those evil spirits came for me, I presume…" Natsume said in a guilty tone. "I am sorry I brought back such troubles for you, Saya-hime. I did not mean it at all…"

"It is not your fault, Natsume-kun," Saya said to him and patted his back gently. "Don't think of it that way. The spirits are there a long time ago. You wouldn't have known that it is there at all. It's sneaky and clever, and most of all, evil to the core. You are so lucky to be still alive after seeing it. Most people would be devoured immediately after seeing it. I guess by having Nyankichi-sensei here with you is a good thing indeed…"

Natsume looked the other way and stares as Nyanko is having fun with Taki and Sasada and the rest of his friends. They are so happy, and he couldn't bear to break all those happiness because of him.

"Is there anything I can do to break the curse then?" Natsume asks Saya, and Saya blinked her eyes at him.

"What curse?" she asks him back.

"Well…" Natsume started. "The evil spirit cursed me right?"

"No…" she said to him with a chuckle. "The evil spirit did not manage to land a curse at you because of my spells…"

"Your spells?" Natsume repeated. Saya nodded her head.

"Saya-hime had placed a Shiki around all of you. It is activated at all times, and it is invisible. It protected you, I see… look…" Seiji said to him, and slammed his palm onto his chest. The shiki flew out of Natsume's chest and Natsume groaned.

"Oi, oi," he said to them and coughed slightly. "Just how many times I'm gonna get hit here?"

"As many times as it took to get you safe, Natsume-kun," Natori said to him with a smile. "Nice shiki there, Saya-hime…"

"Thank you…" Saya said to him with a smile and took the shiki from Seiji's hand. It is burnt at the hand part, and when Saya held it, it turns into ash.

"These are Saya-hime's most powerful Shiki. It is called the Soul Shikis. It is embedded deep into the person's soul, and it will stay there forever until it is used. She places it into you and your friends while you were all asleep. It is valuable and very expensive by the standards of the price in the market. She used these to protect you and the rest of your friends as well, Natsume-kun. It can withstand a strong and powerful evil yokai attack once, and you've used it up with the evil spirit attack. You are so lucky to be alive, Natsume-kun," Seiji said to him.

"T-thank you, Saya-hime…" Natsume said to her with a bow. Saya quickly stopped him and smiles at him. She hugged him and patted his head.

"You are my friend, Natsume-kun. You are the most powerful seer I've ever seen, and I will give my all to protect you. I love you, and I love Taki and Sasada and the rest of your friends as well. They are all my friends, and you are too. I will give my all to protect all of you… I swear with my soul…" she said to him, and Natsume sheds a tear at her solemn pledge and vows to him and his friends.

"Saya-hime," Natsume calls her name, and she smiles.

"We'll protect you too," Seiji said to him and smiles up at him. "You are a close friend of my Saya-hime. I will give my all to protect you as well…"

"Me too," Natori said to him. "You know I will do anything for you just to keep you safe right? So this time, you can rest and sit down and watch us do all the work. You will be safe, Natsume-kun. We'll be here for you."

No one has ever offered to protect him. All these while, he had given his all to protect himself, and relies on Nyanko-sensei to save him countless amount of time. And here he is, with Saya and the rest of the powerful exorcist offering to protect him. Finally, he could rest. Finally, someone is there for him.

Finally, he doesn't have to be afraid anymore.

The evil spirit is quickly found, and it is a huge evil spirit that took three of their best exorcist to exorcist the evil spirit. Natsume's friends are all ushered into the inner house for fear of feeling too overwhelmed by the spirit's presence. All of them scrambles around the windows and stares on with an amazed expression on their face. Touko and Shigeru particularly likes to watch Saya weaves her barrier spells and her other talisman spells.

Seiji, Saya and Natori all stood on the sides of the circles, and they have decided to use Saya's OM spells to complete the deed.

They chanted together, and held their hands in a seal spell.

"Nao ma san dan bo da nan, Gyaran kishi bari ya hata hata ya ju qi ya no wa so wa ka. On abi rao shi rai, bari ya hata hata ya ju qi ya so wa ka. On abi rao za lak tan!" the three of them chanted, and the evil spirit is summoned to the centre of the spell circles that Saya had drawn on with salt.

"Kekkai Jutsu!" she exclaims, and her eyes shines with the power of the fire and the wind she wields. "Hoi (Engulf)!" she exclaims, and a kekkai barrier appears around the evil spirit where it stood. "Joso (Cornerstone)!" she exclaims again, and the evil spirit is trapped inside a barrier wall that she had erected around it. , and it distorted the shape of the kekkai barrier. She strengthens the barrier with another spell, and with it, the kekkai is complete. "Ketsu!" she exclaims, and the kekkai closes up and drowns out the noises of the evil spirit.

"Kekkai Jutsu!" she calls on again, and with her seal talisman papers, she calls on the spirits of the talisman. "Fuuka Shourai!"

Great gush of wind in the form of a tornado appears inside the kekkai, and the evil spirit spins and spins along with the wind. The wind power is so strong that it even cuts on the evil spirits. Blood splattered on the kekkai wall, and the evil spirit opens it mouths in a silent scream.

"Kashin Shourai!" she exclaims again and withdrew a red talisman. A huge fire dragon came down from the clouds and enters the barrier, creating a blast of extreme explosion inside the barrier. The evil spirit couldn't stand a chance against her kekkai and her Shourai powers, and it became ashes soon after.

"Amazing…" Natori said to her and clapped his hands in awe. "Amazing, Saya-hime. Your Shourai spells are the best…"

"Thank you, Natori-san," she said to him with a smile.

She suddenly snapped her head to the sides and stares at a rather tall invisible figure in the air beside her. She smiles at him sweetly, and with it, she said to him, "You can reveal yourself now. It's alright…"

And Natori, Seiji and Natsume all had their eyes wide open in utmost surprise.

The invisible figure became visible in a distorted version of a water surface. Soon, the figure becomes clear, and out came a tall buff and muscled man in dark skin, a ring of a golden hoop on his head and extremely fiery red hair. There is a white silk scarf that hung around him in a godly way, and the man is beautifully beautiful.

He opens his eyes and reveals swirling golden eyes. The rest of Natsume's friends and family saw the man too, and gasped in surprise and awe.

The man wears no shirt, and he has markings of golden sealing words on his body. He wore an armor around his hips, and his legs are covered in a red clothe. He is barefooted.

"This is Touda," Saya said to them and introduced the God to them. Seiji, Natsume and Natori all gaped at the God in front of them. The God nodded his head at them once with his solemn expression, and looks at Saya.

Saya clicked her tongue at him and glares at him, and the God quickly averted his look back to the three men in front of him. He creaked out a smile, and appears to try his best to smile at them with his solemn expression, revealing one fang out from his dark lips.

"Hajimemashte (First time meeting you all)," the God said to them. "Waga wa Touda (We are Touda)…"

Seiji understood what the God is saying. Touda is using the royal language in the olden days. They call it the language of the Gods. The Gods, being high and superior beings themselves would use the word 'We' to stand for 'I' or 'Me' instead of a plain and simple 'Ore (I for male use)' or 'Watashi (Me)'. He is impressed with the God's appearance, and stares up at the God's towering height.

"Matoba Seiji des," Seiji said to the God and bows to him.

"Natori Shuichi des," he said to the God, and the God nods his head.

"N-Natsume Takashi des," Natsume said to him and bows to him, and Touda had a reaction out of all of them.

"Natsume Takashi?" Touda repeated his name. Natsume is so surprised that he stood up straight, as if he had been struck with lightning on his back.

"H-Hai!" he exclaims in surprise, and the God came and stood in front of him.

"You are Natsume Takashi-dono?" the God said to him in a surprised way, his golden eyes burning into Natsume's brown ones.

Natsume nodded his head awkwardly, and saw Saya smiles at him sweetly.

The God, Touda, bows to him and knelt on one leg in front of Natsume. Natsume is so surprised that he balked and walked a few steps backward.

"You have our utmost respect, Natsume Takashi-dono. You are famous in our world, the world of the Gods. Your powers and reputation precedes you in ways you could never imagine. Though we have pledged to Saya hime, we shall pledge to you as well, and we swears on the blood and soul of the Gods above that we will protect you and aid you, and come to you whenever you calls us so…" Touda said to him in a solemn vow, and Natsume is surprised.

"E-eh!?" Natsume balked.

"Natsume-kun," Saya said to him with a smile. "I've told you before this, didn't I? You are loved by the Gods. Touda is a God from above the clouds in a world we never imagined could exist. Now you believe me?"

"L-loved?" he stuttered in surprise.

"Don't be so surprised, Natsume-kun," Natori patted his back with a smile. "You are loved by the Gods that are no surprise. You are so powerful and so kind, and with it, you've earned a place with the Gods. You will go there when you die, don't worry…"

"All the Gods would call out a war just so that they could be your personal God, Natsume Takashi-dono. We are lucky to see you here in this era, living and breathing as a human. It is an honor to meet you, and to speak with you, and to be in your presence, Natsume Takashi-dono. An honor worth a lifetime of souls…" Touda said to him, and Natsume is stunned to silence.

"You are the boy that the God loves, Natsume-kun," Saya said to him with a smile. "You are him. To see you here in this era and to speak with you, be with you and breathe the same air with you is an honor for all the Gods. This is also how I came to know you before I see you, from Touda's own words that the Natsume Takashi of the humans is a powerful and kind seer. So kind that Ayakashi from all around Japan would come and pledge their souls with him, and see him in this time of the era. To be able to see you here, Natsume-kun, is an honor worth a lifetime, and to be able to be with you here right now, would be an honor worth so many suns and souls…"

Natsume is so touched with the words of both Touda and Saya that he, again, sheds tears of gratitude. He sobbed, and Saya smiles and went up ahead to give him a hug. Natsume sobbed into her shoulders sadly, and Saya smiles and patted his back gently.

"You should be happy, Natsume-kun," she said to him with a smile. Seiji and Natori smiles too, and they watched as Saya consoles the poor sad boy who is so touched with the words of a God that he sheds tears of sadness. "You should be happy to be loved by so many Gods…"

"I'm… I'm happy…" Natsume stuttered and sobbed. "I'm so happy… I just don't know why I cry…"

Touko sheds tears at the sight of Natsume crying into Saya's small shoulders. She knew Natsume has gone through a hard life, and she had heard so many of his previous relatives said that he is a liar of sort, constantly spouting nonsense to scare people. But she knew, Natsume is special. Natsume is a special boy, and he is the kindest and possibly one of the loneliest and saddest boys she has ever met.

Until he met Saya and the rest of his friends.

These days, Natsume would come home with a happy expression on his face. He looks so much younger and youthful, and he would be bouncing with happiness every time he goes to school. Touko is happy that he has found such valuable friends to be with.

"Finally ne?" Touko said to Shigeru. Shigeru places his arm around Touko's small shoulder and smiles as he looks at Natsume.

"Finally…" he said to her and smiles.


End file.
